'We don’t support these people': Ex-staffer sues GOP rep, says he was fired for being gay

16 August 2024

A former aide to Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) is now suing his former boss for employment discrimination, alleging that the Texas Republican fired him due to his sexuality.

Politico reported Friday that Alex Chadwell — who worked as a legislative correspondent for Neils' Washington, D.C. office in 2021 — has filed a lawsuit formally accusing Nehls and his chief of staff Robert Schroeder of "direct anti-gay hostility" with frequent comments denigrating the LGBTQ+ community. According to Politico, Chadwell named "the entire office" as defendants in the suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Mary Davis, who was a deputy district director at Nehls' office in Richmond, Texas at the time of the allegations, told the outlet that Nehls called her on one occasion and asked her to find out whether Chadwell was gay. After confirming that he was, Davis said the congressman acted differently toward Chadwell. She recalled one instance when an employee was watching the show "Queer Eye," and Nehls remarked: "Why are we watching this? We need to turn it off. We don’t support these people."

"They were really good family friends and then it was like Alex was dead to him after he found out he was gay," Davis told Politico.

Schroeder in particular was accused of making remarks in the office like "gays go to hell," and that the natural order for humans was "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve."

Attorney Les Alderman, who is representing Chadwell in the suit, said it was "particularly reprehensible that someone could be forced out of a job because of their sexuality in this day and age."

"We should be beyond this as a society, and we will be sure that justice is served," he said in a statement.

Schroeder told the publication that "every single aspect" of Chadwell's lawsuit "is a complete fabrication," and referred to Nehls spokesperson Emily Matthews for further comment. She told Politico that the congressman "did not, and does not discriminate based on any unlawful factor."

“There is no merit whatsoever to Mr. Chadwell’s claim and the allegations of sexual orientation harassment are totally false,” she said. “The office intends to mount a vigorous defense in this matter and is confident that it will be exonerated once all the facts are known.”

Currently, federal law includes the LGBTQ+ community among other protected classes — like gender, religion, race, disability, ethnicity and other classes — in anti-discrimination laws. However, former President Donald Trump has suggested that those protections would no longer exist if he won a second term this November. The far-right Heritage Foundation's authoritarian Project 2025 playbook has also called for all LGBTQ+ protections to be stripped from federal statutes.

Click here to read Politico's full report in its entirety.

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