Panel backs gay man in discrimination case

AUGUSTA – The Maine Human Rights Commission has sided with a gay man who said that Lepage Bakeries employees taunted him for a perceived lack of masculinity.

Terry Mikesell of Auburn said he endured nearly two decades of harassment at the bakery. Between the fall of 1998 and the spring of 2000, he filed three complaints with the commission that alleged age and sex discrimination.

Maine law does not protect employees from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Mikesell said his co-workers and supervisors mocked his age, his sexual orientation and his perceived lack of masculinity to the point that he felt nauseated and dreaded going to work.

He accused the company of failing to take reasonable steps to stop the harassment and of retaliating against him.

The bakery, one of Lewiston-Auburn area’s largest employers, denied Mikesell’s accusations.

“The complaints were investigated. They were addressed. People were disciplined,” said Peter Bennett, the bakery’s attorney. “What we have here is a situation where the company tried to do the right thing, but was presented with conflicting stories. In the end, it was all cleaned up.”

After the recommendations of the commission’s lead investigator, the panel members voted in support of two of Mikesell’s complaints. They found grounds for discrimination on the basis of age and sex, but not for retaliation.

Mikesell, 54, said workers repeatedly called him old and lazy and whistled a song about an old man in his presence. All of the commissioners supported this claim, which prompted few questions.

His sex discrimination complaint proved more complicated, raising the question of whether Mikesell’s allegations can be considered a violation of the Maine Human Rights Act.

Mikesell said in his complaint that workers mocked him by speaking to him in high-pitched voices and making stereotypically effeminate gestures such as sashaying and holding up limp wrists in his presence.

Bennett said Mikesell was trying to circumvent the fact that Maine does not provide protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation by filing a gender-discrimination complaint.

“The bottom line, however we might personally feel about the situation, is that the law does not apply to this case,” Bennett said.

Curtis Webber, Mikesell’s lawyer, argued that the company failed to stop co-workers from taunting him for his perceived lack of masculinity – not for his homosexuality.

“Gender discrimination based on sexual stereotypes is different than discrimination based on sexual orientation,” Webber said.

Three of the commissioners supported Mikesell’s sex discrimination claim. One was absent, and another against it.

“I need to tell you that I am struggling with this,” said Linda Abromson, who cast the only dissenting vote. “I have a great deal of difficulty making the distinction.”