Worker’s Perceived-as-Gay Harassment Claim Revived on Appeal (1) – Bloomberg Law

A fired worker may be able to prove his supervisor with a North Carolina-based underwater repair and inspection company harassed him because he mistakenly perceived him to be gay, the Fourth Circuit ruled Friday in a case of first impression for the court.

The appeals court agreed with Chazz Roberts and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that the three evidentiary routes laid out by the U.S. Supreme Court in Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services Inc. aren’t the only ways to prove same-sex sexual harassment under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Roberts therefore doesn’t have to show that…