Total Articles: 2
Single Anti-Gay Comment May Create Hostile Work Environment.
Continuing the trend of recent cases which have expressed little tolerance for bigoted comments in the workplace, the Appellate Division held that a single anti-gay remark by a supervisor – who allegedly called her subordinate a “stupid fag” under her breath after an argument – may be enough to create a hostile working environment under the NJLAD, and sent the case back for a trial. The Court found the facts here comparable to those in Taylor v. Metzger, 152 N.J. 490 (1998), where the Supreme Court held that a single racist remark by a supervisor, who called a subordinate “jungle bunny,” could create a hostile working environment. The Kwiatkowski decision follows the decision last month in Cutler v. Dorn, in which the Supreme Court held that anti-Semitic remarks in the workplace were serious enough to create a hostile working environment.
New Jersey Now Prohibits Gender Identity Discrimination (pdf).
In June 2007, New Jersey amended its Law Against
Discrimination (LAD) to cover “gender identity and
expression.” The LAD now protects individuals who
have or are perceived as having “a gender related identity
or expression . . . not stereotypically associated with a
person’s assigned sex at birth, including transgender
status,” from discrimination in employment, housing,
public accommodation and qualifi cation for loans.
