A longtime Starbucks manager is suing the coffeehouse chain for discrimination, retaliation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, accusing his bosses of ignoring the “extreme and outrageous” harassment he claims he suffered on the job because he is straight.
Christopher Thevanesan, a “heterosexual, gender typical man” in Rochester, New York, claims supervisors at his location treated him “in a materially different manner” than employees who were “not heterosexual and/or gender typical men,” according to a lawsuit filed under New York State’s Human Rights Law and obtained by The Independent.
The suit, which was served on Starbucks in late February, describes the 47-year-old Thevanesan as “a model employee who performed the essential functions of his employment in an exemplary fashion.” However, it contends, his LGBTQ+ coworkers created a “hostile” work environment for Thevanesan due to his “gender typicality and sexual orientation,” and higher-ups allegedly fired him when he complained.
Reached by phone on Thursday, Thevanesan — a person of color who now works at a bank — said he was reluctant to comment before consulting with Neil Flynn, the attorney who filed the lawsuit on his behalf.
In a subsequent call, Flynn told The Independent that he believes Thevansan’s heterosexuality had been “weaponized” against him.
“Management was indifferent to his complaints,” Flynn said, claiming Starbucks workers in the store and surrounding area were attempting to drive out their straight colleagues.
Thevanesan has now “moved on,” according to Flynn, asserting that the experience “took a toll” on his client “personally and professionally.”
Messages seeking comment sent to a Starbucks spokesperson and the legal team defending the company against Thevanesan’s suit went unanswered.
Thevanesan’s grievance in many ways mirrors a high-profile case brought by Marlean Ames, an Ohio woman who sued her employer, the state Department of Youth Services, arguing she was denied a promotion because she is heterosexual, after which she was demoted and replaced by a gay man. Following a decision in favor of the state agency by Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Ames took her case to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the high court now rules with Ames, it could open the door for those from so-called majority backgrounds, such as straight, white individuals, to sue on the basis of “reverse discrimination.”
Ames has received support from America First Legal, the right-wing public interest group headed by Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff to President Donald Trump. On January 21, Trump’s second day in office, he signed an executive order seeking to dismantle the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives meant to level the playing field for minority groups, calling such well-meaning equal rights practices “illegal” and “pernicious.” Last month, the State of Missouri sued Starbucks, claiming its DEI hiring practices were actually slowing down orders, an assertion the company called “inaccurate.”
Thevanesan began managing Starbucks store #47825 in 2014, according to his LinkedIn profile. The employees who worked at the store he oversaw “were members of the LGBQT+ community,” says his complaint.
Starbucks management, along with store staff, “were aware of [Thevanesan’s] gender typicality and sexual orientation” from the start, the complaint goes on.
“At all relevant times, [Thevanesan] was harassed by the staff due to his sex, sexual orientation and/or gender in the course of [his] employment.” the complaint states.
Management had a duty to provide Thevanesan with “a safe environment in which to do his job free of harassment,” according to the complaint. However, it claims, they “breached that duty.” The complaint contends Thevanesan reported the alleged harassment to his superiors, but that they “aided, abetted, tolerated, condoned and facilitated the harassment.”
The harassment about Thevanesan’s sexual preference “was so frequent, pervasive, and severe that it altered [Thevanesan’s] employment conditions and created a hostile work environment,” the complaint states.
Thevanesan’s complaint accuses upper management of “negligently” failing to properly supervise the workers, thus exposing him to harassment “so extreme and outrageous, as to be unacceptable in contemporary society.”
In February 2022, Thevanesan was terminated for ginned-up, unspecified violations, according to the complaint, which calls them pretextual and “intended to hide the real reason for doing so.”
“He was given several different conflicting reasons for why he was discharged,” Flynn told The Independent. “We’re in the course of discovery, so we’re still trying to verify what their claims are.”
In fact, the complaint argues, Thevanesan was let go “because he is a heterosexual, gender typical man.”
All told, Thevanesan says he sustained emotional, psychological, and economic damages, along with “serious, permanent physical harm and emotional distress.”
Thevanesan is now demanding compensatory, liquidated, punitive, and statutory damages, in an amount to be determined in court, plus attorneys’ fees, from Starbucks and five of his former coworkers.
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