The employment discrimination case that received the most attention in recent years has been Cirque du Soleil's firing of an HIV-positive gymnast from a Las Vegas show.Gymnast Matthew Cusick was fired from "Mystere" in the spring of 2003, and Lambda Legal filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) in July 2003.
The firing shocked many fans of Cirque du Soleil, whose marketers court the GLBT community for the entertaining and acrobatic shows around the world. Several groups organized protests against the company's touring shows in the fall of 2003.
In February 2004, Cirque du Soleil announced it had changed its hiring policies, and it announced intentions to negotiate a rehire for Cusick.
The EEOC complain was finally settled on April 22, 2004, when Cirque du Soleil agreed to pay $600,000 to Matthew Cusick, who ultimately decided not to return to "Mystere." It is the largest HIV discrimination settlement of its kind, according to Lambda Legal.
Federal laws protect every American from job discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, national origin and disability. However, they say nothing about discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Twelve states and dozens of municipalities have chosen to include sexual orientation in their own employment discrimination statutes.
Calling civil rights the "unfinished business of America," Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., has championed the federal Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) for years in the Senate. But the measure has never come close to passing both chambers of Congress.
Please click on the links above and in the callout sections for the full story on employment nondiscrimination.
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