Lesbian Firefighter Awarded $1.3 Million in Harrassment Settlement
metroweekly.comaccording to The Kansas City Star, and will be awarded to the 61-year-old in exchange for her retiring from the fire department and agreeing to drop two lawsuits alleging discrimination based on her gender, sexual orientation, and age.Reynolds also promised not to file a third lawsuit based on an incident in which a fellow firefighter allegedly urinated on things in her office in 2023 while she was on extended medical leave.Reynolds joined the department in 2003 after graduating from the fire academy at age 40.Over the next two decades, she claimed to have been subjected to mistreatment and abuse by fellow firefighters and superiors due to being a woman, a lesbian, and older than most of her peers, as detailed in a report from the Star.
Reynolds said her colleagues repeatedly demeaned and challenged her authority during emergency calls, even screaming or swearing at her in front of patients and others.
Her superiors yelled at her, telling her she was “not normal” due to her sexual orientation.Another co-worker criticized how she decided to set up her equipment as a medic working a Kansas City Chiefs game in 2022. “That’s why they shouldn’t hire old people,” he apparently said.In March 2023, another firefighter allegedly tripped her on purpose, causing a knee injury that required surgery.In August of that same year, she was assigned to a station at Kansas City International Airport, where she had converted a storage room into a small office.In September, while on medical leave to address the knee injury, one of her fellow firefighters allegedly urinated on items in her office, including training books, a recreational bodyboard, a CD player, and other belongings amounting to $3,000 in value.When she returned to work, she noticed a strange smell in her office, and saw that the items were wet with a yellow liquid.
