Gay San Francisco police officer Brendan Mannix (pictured above), has filed a lawsuit against the SFPD, accusing some of its members of “sexual harassment and sexual discrimination based on his sexual orientation
Mannix said two sergeants at Central Station frequently made comments about his sexual orientation, including calling him a “queen,” “too dramatic” and insulting his masculinity, attorney Lawrence Organ wrote. When he tried to report the behavior, Mannix allegedly faced retaliation, and he said the department didn’t do anything to stop the harassment.
One suggested Mannix was in a sexual relationship with the other gay officer at the station, and when Mannix did or said something the sergeant believed was stereotypically gay, he would say “ugh, you gays!” or “God, you gays!” [attorney L:awrence] Organ said. The sergeant, Organ said, would also mock Mannix’s hair style and physical appearance, making comments like, “Is that hair big enough?!” and “How much do you weigh? One hundred pounds soaking wet?” In one instance, when they discovered a dead body in the water at night, the sergeant told him, “don’t be such a queen,” when Mannix said he was cold, Organ said.
When Mannix confronted two sergeants named in the lawsuit, asking them to stop the harassment and telling them he believed it was motivated by his sexual orientation, they broke out into laughter and mocked him, according to the lawsuit.
One of the sergents allegedly concluded by leaning close into Mannix’s face and saying: “If you think I’m a bully, file a fucking complaint.”
In a city whose most infamous assassin was a homphobic former police officer and firefighter Dan White, you would think there’d be a point of screening officers extra carefully to try to recruit ones without prejudices.
It is a hard thing to understand how something like this would happen in San Francisco.