Ex-Employee Claims He Was Treated Differently Because He’s Gay!
The Rev. Jesse Jackson is once again being accused of sexual harassment…this time from a gay man who used to work for him at the Rainbow Push Coalition! Ex-employee Tommy Bennett filed a complaint against Jackson last summer with the City of Chicago Human Relations Commission alleging the reason he was terminated was because he is gay.
In the complaint, Bennett describes what he calls “demeaning and demoralizing tasks” that he was asked to perform as part of his duties for PUSH — everything from escorting women to and from Jackson’s hotel room and cleaning up after sexual intercourse, to fetching erectile dysfunction pills for Jackson and, in one instance, being asked to apply ointment to a rash on Jackson’s inner thigh. He was asked to do these things, he says, because of his gender and his sexual orientation.
“They asked me to travel with the Reverend for just a couple of weeks, and that turned into a year,” Bennett said in an interview with theGrio. “I would never apply for a job to pack his clothes, clean up the hotel room after he met different folks there, buy his underclothes. [But] I tried my best because I loved serving the community, and before my feelings, I put the community first.
Jackson’s people denied the claims and released this statement,
“The Rainbow PUSH Coalition and Rev. Jackson, Sr. unequivocally deny Bennett’s false claims of harassment, retaliation and discrimination. We are fully cooperating with the Chicago Commission on Human Relations and expect to be fully exonerated.” The spokesperson also said “Rainbow PUSH does not condone or tolerate discrimination. His inflammatory allegations are an attempt to malign Reverend Jackson and the organization.”
If it’s not ONE thing…it’s ANOTHER. SMH These church and political leaders really need to clean up their closets! I’m sick of hearing about some sex scandal associated with a person who is SUPPOSED to hold themselves to a higher standard. Now, I’m not saying we all don’t have dirty laundry, but they act oh so surprised when theirs is AIRED! What’s done in the dark will always come to light. I want to see where this story goes….
What do y’all think? Guilty or not?
