• 19
  • August
    2011

Two men are suing California's Great America for sexual harassment, discrimination, invasion of privacy and emotional distress. The ten-count complaint alleges that the amusement park's employees posted a photograph of them labeled with a homophobic slur.

According to the complaint, the two men were photographed holding hands on a roller coaster but declined to buy the photograph. Later, a friend saw a copy of the photo displayed at another ride with a bubble caption containing a homophobic slur. The friend grabbed the photo and showed it to the two men, who were very upset.

The men brought the incident to the attention of the Great America human resources managers. They claim that the managers were initially responsive, though later stopped communicating, which prompted the lawsuit.

An attorney for the plaintiffs says that they were humiliated by the display of the photo, stating that one man was in the process of coming out and had trouble handling ridicule based on his sexual orientation.

The men are suing for unspecified damages and changes in park policy.

According to the attorney, if the park already has proper policy in place, employees are not properly trained or supervised in those policies.

A spokesman from the park has said that he has not seen the complaint, but he is confident that park managers acted appropriately when dealing with the incident and took the appropriate actions when dealing with the employees involved. He would not state what those actions were because of privacy in personnel matters. The park does not condone such actions.

Source: Associated Press, "2 men sue Calif. amusement park over slur on photo," Aug. 9, 2011