Another allegation of LGBTQ discrimination lodged against Dallas Arboretum

Another former worker of the Dallas Arboretum has filed a discrimination grievance, alleging he was unjustly fired and handled poorly as a result of of his sexual orientation.

David Jeffcoat, who labored for the arboretum for greater than seven years, says his employment was terminated and his therapy went “downhill” after he instructed managers he was homosexual. His termination letter, reviewed by The Dallas Morning News, cites failure to satisfy job requirements and “deficiencies in [his] performance.”

The allegations come about seven months after one other discrimination grievance was filed against the arboretum.

The newest allegations had been detailed in a discrimination grievance offered by Lambda Legal — the agency representing Jeffcoat and the previous worker within the earlier grievance — and filed Tuesday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the town of Dallas’ Fair Housing Office.

Arboretum spokeswoman Terry Lendecker mentioned in a written assertion that the ability is conscious of the grievance however has not been notified by the EEOC. Lendecker mentioned that the arboretum “takes all allegations of discrimination very seriously, including allegations of sexual orientation discrimination” and that it “respects the LGBTQ+ community.”

“We are sad that an employee would feel they had been treated unfairly,” the assertion mentioned. “We will thoroughly investigate the allegations made by the former employee.”

The gardens are internet hosting a “Pride in Bloom” occasion June 11 for LGBTQ Pride Month, the assertion famous.

The arboretum — positioned on 66 acres of city-owned land on the southeastern shore of White Rock Lake — is managed by the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Society and is funded largely by donations and admission charges. The News is a sponsor of the gardens.

‘Set up to fail’

Jeffcoat, 57, was employed in 2014 as a gate attendant and promoted final summer time to a supervisory function. Managers instructed him on the time that it might take a yr or two to study his new place, and the arboretum would give him the mandatory coaching and efficiency opinions each 30 days, in line with the grievance.

In his first two opinions — at 60 and 90 days — Jeffcoat acquired favorable scores, however managers famous that he had “a lot to learn.”

In October 2021, Jeffcoat’s husband fell in poor health with COVID-19; Jeffcoat knowledgeable his managers of the state of affairs, referring to his husband as his “partner.” He had not beforehand shared with administration that he lived with one other man, in line with the grievance.

The grievance says that after Jeffcoat mentioned he lived with a person, managers “took nearly every opportunity they could to make [Jeffcoat’s] job harder to perform. This treatment was markedly different from the treatment he had received before — no longer was the Arboretum providing him with the training, assistance, support and feedback it promised him.”

Jeffcoat described “toxic” administration and mentioned he was given more and more tough duties and unrealistic expectations.

“If you work for someone for seven and a half years, I’m sure you’re not going to have a perfect record,” mentioned Shelly Skeen, a Lambda Legal legal professional. “The key here is the timing: The only thing that changed here between what David had done over the course of those seven years was the fact that he came out as gay.”

In November, the arboretum employed a brand new individual to deal with some of Jeffcoat’s duties, and in January, he was served a written discover for areas of enchancment. In February, Jeffcoat was injured on the job after slipping on ice. He took someday off and was fired the following day, in line with the grievance.

“The close proximity of him being fired after he got hurt … is an indication that they were looking for a reason to fire him,” Skeen mentioned. “He felt like he was being set up to fail.”

Previous case

This is at least the second cost of discrimination introduced against the arboretum.

In November, a former worker — who’s genderqueer and makes use of she they usually pronouns — alleged they had been terminated after complaints from administration about their use of gender-expansive pronouns.

The former worker was instructed to not put their pronouns of their e-mail signature, put on pins that learn “they/ellos” and “she/ella,” or introduce themselves internally with their pronouns, they instructed The News.

The former worker mentioned they had been fired following a gathering the place managers mentioned “the arboretum is a ‘conservative institution,’ that donors had complained about employees’ use of pronoun pins, and that the arboretum could ‘not promote an agenda,’” the grievance says.

Skeen mentioned that grievance is within the “investigation” section.

The complainants are asking the EEOC to find out whether or not their terminations had been primarily based on their sexual orientation or gender id and whether or not a sample of discrimination passed off inside the gardens, Skeen mentioned.

The arboretum receives lower than 2% of its funding from taxpayers in addition to a stipend from the town and help from the Park and Recreation Department.

The arboretum’s operational settlement with the town features a clause that claims the arboretum can’t discriminate against any worker primarily based on “sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression.” Dallas’ metropolis constitution additionally protects against discrimination primarily based on sexual orientation, gender id and gender expression.

Several protests have been organized outdoors the gardens’ gates in response to the allegations.

Jeffcoat referred to as for “accountability” on the arboretum, saying: “I just hope that out of all of this that the arboretum can become a place for equality.”

Said Skeen: “We really want the arboretum to do the right thing by all of its employees and visitors, which means to recognize and accept everyone for who they are.”