Suit over ‘inappropriate gay comments’ filed against Orange Beach – OBAwebsite.com
Orange Beach, Ala. – (OBA) – In a lawsuit filed in federal court on Dec. 22, a former employee of the Orange Beach afterschool Expect Excellence Program alleges that city Director of Recreation Jonathan Langston acted inappropriately toward that employee including referring to gays as “faggoty” or “homos.” The lawsuit lists the former employee as gay.
The suit aims to seek “legal and equitable relief to redress” actions against the employee, Chaise Morrisette, and two of his co-workers who spoke out in support of him, Lacy McFadden and De Ann Milly. Morrisette was hired as part-time in October of 2018 and promoted to fulltime in November of 2019 and was the Director of Theater for Expect Excellence. None of the three are still employed by Orange Beach. They are represented by Fairhope lawyers Stein and Pilcher.
Orange Beach City Attorney Jamie Logan said the city does not comment on pending lawsuits.
Included in the suit are Mayor Tony Kennon and the entire Orange Beach City Council saying in the filing the group “failed to provide adequate and proper supervision of Langston in the performance of his duties. (Orange Beach) received complaints from other employees working at (Orange Beach), alleging Langston had engaged in inappropriate, offensive, and hostile conduct towards other (Orange Beach) employees.”
The lawsuit seeks “punitive damages against defendants Kennon, (Annette) Mitchell and Langston for their deliberate and intentional acts against plaintiffs” as well as compensatory damages “in an amount the jury determines will compensate the plaintiffs for their losses and damages suffered.” The plaintiffs also want the city to pay their legal costs.
The suit also alleges the city council and mayor were made aware of the offensive behavior and actions of Langston but took no action to address the allegations. Councilmember Annette Mitchell is named individually because she is involved in the theater program and serves on the Expect Excellence Steering Committee.
“(Orange Beach) had ineffective and inadequate policies and procedures for informing and training its employees and managerial employees in a manner as to avoid the type of conduct alleged herein,” the filing states. “(Orange Beach), City Council, Mitchell and Kennon failed to properly and adequately monitor and enforce (Orange Beach’s) EEO policies and discrimination laws.”
In June of 2021, the three plaintiffs filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and after its investigation sent letters to the trio in September and October of 2022 saying they “had a right to sue” over the allegations.
Morrisette’s suits claims the behavior started almost immediately after he began working for the city including criticism and harassment over his sexual orientation.
“Langston, Recreational Director and Morrisette’s direct supervisor, began to criticize and harass Morrisette because of his gender, male, sexual orientation, and failure to conform to male norms and stereotypes,” the filing states.
Additionally, the suit claims, Langston talked about his own sexual activities and made comments in the presence of others several times during Morrisette’s employment.
“Langston engaged in inappropriate and offensive conduct toward Morrisette and/or in his presence including, but not limited to, inappropriate sexual comments and jokes, sharing intimate details of his sexual encounters and penis size, and intimate and sexual information regarding Langston’s wife, Mrs. Jessica Langston (“Mrs. Langston”), Creative Director and Morrisette’s supervisor,” it states. “Langston and Mrs. Langston, Morrisette’s direct supervisors, made disparaging comments about Morrisette’s sexual orientation and identity to other employees and members of the public and frequently made snide comments about Morrisette’s sexuality to and in the presence of other employees, parents, and EE Program members.”
It goes on to say that Langston asked about Morrisette’s private life as well and asked him about any other gay individuals who might work for the city.
“Langston frequently inquired about Morrisette’s sexual encounters and questioned Morrisette about his opinions of the sexuality of other (Orange Beach) employees and public citizens and/or whether they had homosexual tendencies,” the filing states. “Langston’s inappropriate and discriminatory conduct was open and obvious and was commonly known and systemically tolerated by employees and supervisors of (Orange Beach), including, but not limited to, Kennon and Mitchell.”
Among other allegations in the suit are that Langston and Mrs. Langston made comments to McFadden about Orange Beach High School Creative Director Darren Butler saying they believed he was gay and they believed he “had a crush” on Morrisette.
In another meeting with the Langstons, Morrisette, McFadden and employee Renea McCoy they were told by Langston there was a “cancer in the room” and it needed to be “cut out.” When the Langstons left the room during the meeting one of them left a recorder running and heard the others offering support to Morrisette. The recording was transcribed and posted to Facebook, the lawsuit claims.
In discussions about upcoming production, the suit alleges, during discussions about the play “Clue” concerns were raised over one of the characters being gay.
“Mrs. Langston expressed her desire to replace the homosexual character with a ‘psychopath’ and/or a ‘criminal’” the filing states. “Mitchell also noted the gay character ‘had to go.’ McFadden addressed concerns of ‘discrimination’ and left the meeting in protest.”
The play “HairSpray” was totally rejected because “Langston and Mitchell expressed concerns regarding interracial aspects of the play and concerns that a female character in the play was traditionally played by a male,” the filing states. “The play was, thereafter, rejected because of racial and LGBTQ associations” and because it had “a gay political agenda.”
Finally, the suit seeks a declaratory judgment that the actions of the defendants were in violation of federal law and to file an injunction against the defendants and future employees to prevent them from similar violations in the future.