Amazon Sued By Kentucky Man, Transgender Wife Over Alleged Discrimination

HEBRON, KY — A Kentucky man and his transgender wife endured sustained discrimination and harassment while working at an Amazon warehouse near Cincinnati, Ohio, they said in a discrimination lawsuit Wednesday.

The case is notable partly because Amazon, one of the nation's largest corporations, has a record of strongly supporting gay and transgender rights, a lawyer working with the couple said.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Covington, Kentucky, said Dane Lane and Allegra Schawe-Lane were the targets of threats, slurs and sexual harassment by many of their colleagues at the shipping facility in Hebron, Kentucky. Complaints to superiors sometimes led to retaliation, they said, rather than any effective steps to stop the abuse. The suit said the brake line of their car was severed while parked in a secure lot at the workplace. (For more information on this and other Across Kentucky stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The plaintiffs' case will be handled by Kentucky lawyers on behalf of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, a national transgender-rights organization.

The fund's executive director, Jillian Weiss, noted that Amazon has intervened in other court cases in support of transgender rights, and that the company's Amazon Studios produced the acclaimed television series "Transparent" with a protagonist who transitions from male to female.

"We have a company that touts its transgender friendliness," Weiss said. "Yet in Kentucky, when a transgender person comes and says, 'Look, I'm being harassed,' they get no help."

Schawe-Lane said she sought a job with Amazon in part because of the company's reputation as LGBT-friendly. Its own corporate policy bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

"I thought we would be safe and accepted," Schawe-Lane said in a telephone interview. "Instead it was like a bad dream. Every day, I'd wish it was 'Candid Camera' and someone would pop out and say it was all a joke."

The couple was hired by Amazon in October 2014 and resigned a year later, saying conditions at their workplace were intolerable.

Two months before resigning, they filed discrimination charges with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC declared earlier this year that evidence substantiated some of the couple's allegations and said they had grounds for a lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks both compensatory payment and punitive damages, with the amount to be determined by a jury. It also seeks a court order requiring Amazon to implement workplace programs that would ensure respectful treatment of transgender employees.

Several other transgender-rights lawsuits have been litigated recently, with mixed results. The Kentucky case alleges that various abuses suffered by the plaintiffs violated provisions of the U.S. and Kentucky civil rights acts, state and federal labor law, and also the Americans With Disabilities Act. According to Weiss, the ADA comes into play in this case because Schawe-Lane's status as a transgender woman was perceived her employers as a disability.

Aside from their experience at Amazon, the couple said they generally feel accepted in their community and have no desire to leave Kentucky. However, they said they are both undergoing treatment related to the workplace traumas they experienced, and have been advised by their doctors that they are not ready to take new jobs.

By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer

Photo credit: Jillian Weiss via AP