{"id":24927,"date":"2013-10-13T21:29:15","date_gmt":"2013-10-14T02:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=24927"},"modified":"2013-10-13T21:29:56","modified_gmt":"2013-10-14T02:29:56","slug":"demotion-was-all-political-deaf-woman-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2013\/10\/13\/demotion-was-all-political-deaf-woman-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Demotion Was All Political, Deaf Woman Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDemotion Was All Political, Deaf Woman Says<\/strong>
\n<\/h2>\n

\n\tOctober 13, 2013<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBy RYAN ABBOTT <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWASHINGTON (CN) – Lies that she had signed an "anti-gay" petition got the chief diversity officer of a school for the deaf suspended, demoted and publicly humiliated, she claims in Federal Court.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAngela McCaskill sued Gallaudet University, her co-worker Martina Bienvenu and Bienvenu's partner, Kendra Smith, for defamation and discrimination.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tA resident of Upper Marlboro, Md., McCaskill says she signed the petition last year to call a referendum on the marriage equality bill Gov. Martin O'Malley had signed into law.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tQuestion 6, as the referendum was known, did appear on the ballot, and voters affirmed gay marriage by a wide margin on Election Night.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAbout a month before voters went to the polls, however, the "openly gay" Bienvenu allegedly confronted McCaskill "in a very hostile manner" about the issue.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMcCaskill says she admitted to signing the petition at church because she wanted "to have the same-sex marriage issue vetted through public discourse so that Maryland voters could become more understanding, informed, and enlightened about the issue once they entered the polls."\n<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite McCaskill's insistence that the petition is not "anti-gay," Bienvenu allegedly "responded in a very animated manner with her sign-voice elevated, exclaiming: 'I am really disgusted with you!'"\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMcCaskill, who is both black and deaf, says Bienvenu then criticized Christian beliefs on homosexuality – particularly among black churches – and warned her to "discontinue her religious services at her church or suffer dramatic consequences," according to the complaint.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tFearing for her safety, McCaskill claims she informed her supervisors of the dispute, and then relayed the details to the president and provost of the school for the deaf.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to the complaint, the school failed to investigate McCaskill's discrimination claim against Bienvenu and her partner, whom she claims penned an email to university officials with Bienvenu about McCaskill's endorsement of Proposition 6.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tLater that week, the university provost allegedly told McCaskill to "publicly apologize in writing to the entire University community for exercising her right to participate in a Maryland legislative initiative so the matter would be over."\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen McCaskill refused to apologize, the school suspended her, according to the complaint.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile Bienvenu and Smith allegedly defamed McCaskill on PlanetDeafQueer.com as being "anti-gay."\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMcCaskill says that the university publically announced her suspension, and that the school demoted her upon return from deputy to the president and associate provost for diversity and inclusion to "merely chief diversity officer."\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMcCaskill says the ordeal has caused her public embarrassment and cost the school's diversity department $53,000 in budget funds.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t"That plaintiff was further forced to endure, verbal abuse, condescension, and castigation for signing Maryland's same-sex marriage legislative initiative during Faculty Senate meetings while President Hurwitz, nonchalantly looked on, and did nothing to restore order, dignity and respect to plaintiff or her position as chief diversity officer," the complaint states.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMcCaskill wants $16 million in damages for human rights violations, defamation, invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tShe is represented by J. Wyndal Gordon in Baltimore.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSOURCE:\n<\/p>\n

\n\thttp:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/2013\/10\/02\/61701.htm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Demotion Was All Political, Deaf Woman Says October 13, 2013 By RYAN ABBOTT  WASHINGTON (CN) – Lies that she had signed an "anti-gay" petition got the chief diversity officer of a school for the deaf suspended, demoted and publicly humiliated,…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[19966,19973,542,19972,19969,1205,898,19974,19979,19978,19977,19968,19967,2025,15604,19976,19975,19971,19981,19970,19980],"class_list":["post-24927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deaf-news","tag-angela-mccaskill","tag-anti-gay","tag-baltimore","tag-chief-diversity-officer","tag-defamation","tag-discrimination","tag-gallaudet-university","tag-homosexuality","tag-human-rights","tag-human-rights-violations","tag-j-wyndal-gordon","tag-kendra-smith","tag-martina-bienvenu","tag-maryland","tag-political","tag-president-hurwitz","tag-proposition-6","tag-referendum","tag-ryan-abbott","tag-upper-marlboro","tag-violations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p752R-6u3","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21831,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2013\/02\/12\/deaf-man-alleges-he-was-fired-because-of-disability\/","url_meta":{"origin":24927,"position":0},"title":"Deaf man alleges he was fired because of disability","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"February 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Deaf man alleges he was fired because of disability February 4, 2013 By John Suayan, Galveston Bureau HOUSTON \u2013 John McCaskill has filed a lawsuit against American Fire Systems Inc., alleging he was fired because he is deaf. 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