By Marcia Moore
The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.
A transgender State Correctional Institution at Coal Township corrections officer who quit in December 2017 is suing the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, several colleagues and supervisors for creating a hostile work environment and discrimination.
The employee, identified as John Doe in the lawsuit, worked at the prison from October 2013 until Dec. 1, 2017, when he quit after being diagnosed with work-induced anxiety which exacerbated his gender-dysphoria disability, said the lawsuit filed on his behalf by Philadelphia attorney Justin Robinett in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Doe “was treated as if he were neither male nor female which was completely humiliating,” the 88-page lawsuit said. “Plaintiff was literally told he could not do part of his job because he is trans.”
The DOC did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
Doe seeks $150,000 in lost wages and benefits as well as to require the DOC to adopt and enforce an Equal Access Policy and provide non-discrimination and non-harassment training.
In the suit, Doe said supervisors would require him to remove his prosthetic penis every time he entered the workplace and would not allow him to pat down other male officers. The DOC requires male officers to pat down other male officers and females to pat down female officers, according to the lawsuit.
He was required to use the female locker room and restroom because male colleagues expressed concern that their “locker room talk” would get them in trouble with Doe if he were allowed in the male locker room, the suit said. Doe was also required to announce “FOB” or “Female On Block” whenever he entered an all-mall inmate cellblock until he complained to management.
Doe was given an option in fall 2017 to use a restroom in an area near the public waiting room that didn’t have a lock which he said was “not an acceptable compromise” and added to his humiliation and stigmatization.
Robinett, Doe’s attorney, said he was surprised the state DOC doesn’t provide equal access to sex-segregated facilities. “That’s pretty basic nowadays,” he said.
The conduct of his colleagues encouraged verbal abuse from some inmates who called Doe “tranny.” The lawsuit alleges that corrections officers also mistreated transgender inmates
Female co-workers refused to use the proper pronoun of “he” and “him” when referring to Doe which added to his discomfort.
When the staff discussed among themselves how to address Doe and decided to refer him only by last name to avoid any issues. Doe said that singled him out and embarrassed him.
Doe complained frequently to upper management about the harassment and discrimination he faced and expressed fear for his own safety to Deputy Superintendent Edward Baumbauch “because of the trans bias and mistreatment” but no action was taken, the lawsuit said.
Named in the lawsuit along with the state DOC are Baumbauch, Superintendent Thomas McGinley, Major of the Guard Victor Mirarchi and several corrections officers.
©2019 The Daily Item (Sunbury, Pa.)