SAN FRANCISCO — A San Francisco man who says he was devastated after he was identified as gay (search) on a national Spanish-language radio show will be paid $270,000 by Univision Radio, an arbitrator has ruled.
Roberto Hernandez (search), 45, was driving to work in 2002 when he received a phone call from a man who said that he met Hernandez at a San Francisco gay bar. The caller then announced that the conversation was being broadcast live on the "Raul Brindis and Pepito Show," (search) based in Houston.
Hernandez worked for the local station that broadcast the show, and sold advertising for the program. He said he was so depressed by the incident that he could no longer work.
"It's a nightmare," Hernandez said. "How do you live with such an embarrassment in your life? How do you live when someone makes your life so insignificant? "
Hernandez had been discreet about disclosing his sexual orientation before the incident, not even telling his family.
Arbitrator Rebecca Westerfield found on Friday that Hernandez had suffered emotional distress but dismissed claims of sexual harassment. She said that Hernandez had no choice but to quit his job and was owed workers' compensation.
Hernandez was awarded $250,000 and nearly $20,000 in economic damages because of the emotional distress that led to seven months of unemployment after quitting his job.
Univision attorneys declined to comment on the case.
SAN FRANCISCO — A San Francisco man who says he was devastated after he was identified as gay (search) on a national Spanish-language radio show will be paid $270,000 by Univision Radio, an arbitrator has ruled.
Roberto Hernandez (search), 45, was driving to work in 2002 when he received a phone call from a man who said that he met Hernandez at a San Francisco gay bar. The caller then announced that the conversation was being broadcast live on the "Raul Brindis and Pepito Show," (search) based in Houston.
Hernandez worked for the local station that broadcast the show, and sold advertising for the program. He said he was so depressed by the incident that he could no longer work.
"It's a nightmare," Hernandez said. "How do you live with such an embarrassment in your life? How do you live when someone makes your life so insignificant? "
Hernandez had been discreet about disclosing his sexual orientation before the incident, not even telling his family.
Arbitrator Rebecca Westerfield found on Friday that Hernandez had suffered emotional distress but dismissed claims of sexual harassment. She said that Hernandez had no choice but to quit his job and was owed workers' compensation.
Hernandez was awarded $250,000 and nearly $20,000 in economic damages because of the emotional distress that led to seven months of unemployment after quitting his job.
Univision attorneys declined to comment on the case.
I thought I'd post that again with a slight change to the bolding. I think this explains a little better the reason for the settlement. It's not so much that he was outed -- but outed in a way meant to embarass him in front of a large audience.
Myster X
08-15-05, 03:23 PM
This gives a total different meaning to "Gay Pride"
sracer
08-15-05, 03:41 PM
I thought I'd post that again with a slight change to the bolding. I think this explains a little better the reason for the settlement. It's not so much that he was outed -- but outed in a way meant to embarass him in front of a large audience.
How can a person be embarassed by something that they themself consider normal?
uberjoe
08-15-05, 03:50 PM
How can a person be embarassed by something that they themself consider normal?
By being mocked on a national stage, perhaps? I really don't see how hard it is to understand that someone can be comfortable being gay but still be embarassed if a radio station secretly plays a phone call about their personal life.
LiquidSky
08-15-05, 03:52 PM
I'm completely out....so this would not have bothered me.
There are many people who stay in the closet for fear of how their family/friends, etc. will react. They have seen how many gay people are treated and are too afraid to come out.
LiquidSky
08-15-05, 03:58 PM
This gives a total different meaning to "Gay Pride"
There is a difference between people who are comfortable with their sexuality and someone who is too terrified to come out of the closet.
island007
08-15-05, 03:59 PM
By being mocked on a national stage, perhaps? I really don't see how hard it is to understand that someone can be comfortable being gay but still be embarassed if a radio station secretly plays a phone call about their personal life.
How was he mocked again? :hscratch:
I agree the live phone call was sleazy.
uberjoe
08-15-05, 04:03 PM
How was he mocked again? :hscratch:
I agree the live phone call was sleazy.
I don't see how you can ask that, yet say it was "sleazy." If the point wasn't to embarass him, then what was it?
island007
08-15-05, 04:16 PM
I don't see how you can ask that, yet say it was "sleazy." If the point wasn't to embarass him, then what was it?
I wrote the live phone call was sleazy. I see nothing in the article that shows the caller mocked Mr. Hernandez.
I don't see how someonme can be embarassed by something that they themself consider normal.
LiquidSky
08-15-05, 04:19 PM
I wrote the live phone call was sleazy. I see nothing in the article that shows the caller mocked Mr. Hernandez.
I don't see how someonme can be embarassed by something that they themself consider normal.
Maybe he considers himself normal but his family would not. He is Hispanic and most likely Catholic. Perhaps he comes from a very religious family who would disown him for his sexuality.
dick_grayson
08-15-05, 04:21 PM
and/or maybe he's just embarassed about having his sexuality/personal life discussed on a radio show.
uberjoe
08-15-05, 04:26 PM
and/or maybe he's just embarassed about having his sexuality/personal life discussed on a radio show.
Exactly. And while I admit that I'm assuming he was mocked, I'm basing that assumption on the fact the he was secretly outed on the radio by someone saying he met him at a gay bar.
I have a hard time believing the station would have done that if they didn't think it was funny, and that qualifies as "being mocked" for me.
Thor Simpson
08-15-05, 04:47 PM
He is Hispanic and most likely Catholic.
Does the article mention his religion?
:hscratch:
LiquidSky
08-15-05, 05:01 PM
Does the article mention his religion?
:hscratch:
No. I was simply stating possibilities as to why he was in the closet and did not want people to know of his private life.
Thor Simpson
08-15-05, 05:06 PM
Ah. Yeah, makes sense. That's one possibility. I do wonder what % of "gays in the closet" are Catholic though.
Breakfast with Girls
08-15-05, 06:24 PM
He was in the closet. The radio show exposed him to everyone he knows.
kvrdave
08-15-05, 07:07 PM
Ah. Yeah, makes sense. That's one possibility. I do wonder what % of "gays in the closet" are Catholic though.
Including clergy?
Seems like a pretty stupid thing to do in our letigious society to call a person, and not let them know they are on the air immediately. Don't know that I think that means he should make money off it, but I can see how a jury would decide that. Most radio shows like this are seen as sleazy.
I don't think I would sue if I found out that a conversation about my excessive gas was being broadcast over the air waves, but then I doubt it would affect my life like his was either.
Can't imagine living "in the closet" for anything. Too much stress. Far better to get out of the closet and just live.
darkflounder
08-15-05, 08:26 PM
Hell, I'd be wililng to be embarrased on national TV for $260k.
Call me gay, pedophile, druggie, torturer of kittens, art defiler and Democrat.
grundle
08-15-05, 08:45 PM
I can see how he's embarassed, what will all the homophobic right wing conservative Republican religious Christian fundamentalists living in San Francisco. He's probably the only gay person in his entire city. He should move to a place where he'd feel more at home, like Alabama.
Rockmjd23
08-15-05, 09:20 PM
$270,000 for being embarassed. -ohbfrank-
Breakfast with Girls
08-15-05, 10:07 PM
Hell, I'd be wililng to be embarrased on national TV for $260k.
Call me gay, pedophile, druggie, torturer of kittens, art defiler and Democrat.To be humiliated it has to be true and you have to feel guilty about it. If I called you up and revealed on the air that you often frequent she-male prostitutes, and you secretly did frequent she-male prostitutes and weren't terribly proud of the fact, yeah, you might be pissed.
natevines
08-16-05, 01:39 AM
To be humiliated it has to be true and you have to feel guilty about it. If I called you up and revealed on the air that you often frequent she-male prostitutes, and you secretly did frequent she-male prostitutes and weren't terribly proud of the fact, yeah, you might be pissed.
Not pissed to the point where it wouldn't have been worth a quarter of a grand being embarrassed, though.
Artman
08-16-05, 01:43 AM
Call me gay, pedophile, druggie, torturer of kittens, art defiler and Democrat.
:lol:
LiquidSky
08-16-05, 09:37 AM
Hell, I'd be wililng to be embarrased on national TV for $260k.
Call me gay, pedophile, druggie, torturer of kittens, art defiler and Democrat.
LiquidSky, this is really unnecessary and could be taken as a personal attack. Please keep the comments directed at the discussion and not toward other members.
LiquidSky
08-16-05, 10:08 AM
Hell, I'd be wililng to be embarrased on national TV for $260k.
Call me gay, pedophile, druggie, torturer of kittens, art defiler and Democrat.
Okay how about this?
"Hell, I'd be willing to be embarrased on national TV for $2560k.
Call me straight, pedophile, druggie, torturer of kittens, art defiler, and Republican."
Thor Simpson
08-16-05, 11:04 AM
:hscratch:
But... This thread is about a guy who was embarassed that he was called "gay" on the radio.
I see your point about tying it in with those other words... but you should probably be mad at the guy who sued in this case. There aren't many things that could be said on the radio that would be worth suing for this amount of money for... it would have to be something pretty "bad."
digitalfreaknyc
08-16-05, 11:23 AM
To be humiliated it has to be true and you have to feel guilty about it. If I called you up and revealed on the air that you often frequent she-male prostitutes, and you secretly did frequent she-male prostitutes and weren't terribly proud of the fact, yeah, you might be pissed.
Well...he is a republican. ;)
To be honest, I think it's bullshit that some of you 'phobes can't understand how horrific a thing this can be. Personally, I'm out to everyone. Work, family, friends...don't who it is. Don't care that they know I'm gay. But if I'm being mocked for it...which it seems he may have been...OR they did it to out him...which seems more likely the reason why it was done, then that is just fucked up. He should sue. He should quit. Why bother working in an environment like that? He may have just lost not only his self-esteem and his job but also his family and possibly some of his friends. Honestly, if he can pull through it he most definitely will be a better person in the end.
Similar story: one of Madonna's dancers was in Truth or Dare. His family saw it and found out he was gay and they disowned him. I think he was then one of several guys in the movie that then sued her. Not exactly the same but...similar.
YOU may not think it's a big deal but to many people it is. People KILL THEMSELVES over this issue. Coming out is life changing. I will never forget it. But it should be done on your own terms and not when some jackass with a phone decides you should.
And Thor, because you haven't lived it, obviously you have no idea how "bad" this can be. Do some research on the suicide statistics of gays and then come back to us.
Dead
08-16-05, 11:31 AM
...
To be honest, I think it's bullshit that some of you 'phobes...
Again, lets cut out the insults. The rest of your post is quite reasoned, why start out like this?
LiquidSky
08-16-05, 11:41 AM
:hscratch:
But... This thread is about a guy who was embarassed that he was called "gay" on the radio.
I see your point about tying it in with those other words... but you should probably be mad at the guy who sued in this case. There aren't many things that could be said on the radio that would be worth suing for this amount of money for... it would have to be something pretty "bad."
Thor, unless you are gay, I'm not sure if you can fully understand. I'm not saying this to be a smartass or mean.
Some of the crap gay people have thrown at them by society is damn harsh and it takes a very thick skin to get through it. I'm guessing this guy has never come to terms with his sexuality for whatever reason. It's sad that a 45 year old man cannot live his life openly and without fear. Everyone is different, though. If it had happened to me, I would have just shrugged it off. I'm out to everyone in my life.
Thor Simpson
08-16-05, 11:49 AM
LiquidSky, I see your point. All I meant was that saying "Call me straight, pedophile, druggie, torturer of kittens, art defiler, and Republican" does not have nearly the same impact on straight people, nor would they probably care. In this case, it was a big deal. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
LiquidSky
08-16-05, 12:00 PM
LiquidSky, I see your point. All I meant was that saying "Call me straight, pedophile, druggie, torturer of kittens, art defiler, and Republican" does not have nearly the same impact on straight people, nor would they probably care. In this case, it was a big deal. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
Hey, no problem.
Yeah, you are right: it would most likely not have the same impact. It was a knee-jerk response to a post that I should have just let go. :)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has reversed an immigration court decision, granting political asylum to a gay man, 45-year-old Jose Boer-Sedano.
Boer-Sedano, who has AIDS, is a native of Mexico who left his country for San Francisco in 1990. The AIDS diagnosis came two years later, and in 1997, Boer-Sedano was picked up by authorities and slated for deportation.
According to the 9th Circuit opinion, released Friday, Boer-Sedano had an unhappy childhood in the northeastern coastal town of Tampico. Gay from the age of 7, Boer-Sedano told authorities he was harassed and ostracized by family and friends from his earliest years.
In 1988, he and a friend were arrested by a high-ranking police officer, who took them into custody on trumped-up charges of "being gay," (which is not a crime in Mexico). Subsequently, the officer hounded Boer-Sedano, picking him up in his car on a regular basis and forcing him to perform oral sex. According to the court record, the officer threatened to expose Boer-Sedano as a homosexual. He also threatened to kill Boer-Sedano, once putting a bullet in the chamber of his gun, spinning the barrel, and placing it against his victim's head. "If you're lucky," the officer reportedly told him, "this is going to be your fate."
Boer-Sedano obtained a tourist visa, and after saving up some money by buying and selling items across the California border, he moved to the Bay Area, where he lived without incident for seven years until his confrontation with immigration authorities began. During the last decade, Boer-Sedano worked in a hotel as a waiter and bus boy, and has had access to a combination of retroviral drugs that would not be available to him in Mexico.
In November of 2001, an immigration judge ruled that Boer-Sedano could not demonstrate that he had a well-founded fear of persecution based on his membership in a particular social or political group. In ruling against him, the judge characterized the episodes with the police officer as a personal problem with a single individual rather than a continuing example of harassment by a state actor. She faulted him for failing to report the officer to authorities, and indicated that he had the option to live elsewhere in the country.
She also failed to recognize homosexuals as a recognizable social group for immigration purposes, and she downplayed the death threat as a "game" of Russian Roulette.
The judge's decision was upheld without comment by the Board of Immigration Appeals, and subsequently reviewed by the San Francisco-based federal appellate court. On Friday, the unanimous three-judge panel ruled that Boer-Sedano's fear of persecution was very real, and that it was indeed based on his membership in a social group. In an earlier immigration case, the 9th Circuit had defined a social group for this purpose as one "united by a voluntary association or by an innate characteristic that is so fundamental to the identities or consciences of its members that members either cannot, or should not be required, to change it."
Further, the panel found that the forced oral sex and death threats were legitimate cases of state-sponsored persecution, and that the general homophobia that pervades Mexican society cannot be avoided by living in some other part of the country.
"It really does mean that he'll be safe now," attorney Angela Bean told the San Francisco Chronicle. According to Bean, Boer-Sedano was overcome with emotion when he learned of the ruling and could not speak for a full minute.
darkflounder
08-16-05, 03:34 PM
Okay how about this?
"Hell, I'd be willing to be embarrased on national TV for $2560k.
Call me straight, pedophile, druggie, torturer of kittens, art defiler, and Republican."
How about fat lazy bastard with a thing for high school girls? Or does that describe too many people on this board?
Buy: