A former employee of PepsiCo sued the company on July 24, alleging that the company fired her after she returned from family leave following a period of repeated anti-gay harassment that they failed to stop, Human Resources Direction reported. Her lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
The employee, who the aforementioned publication describes as “a gay man who uses female pronouns,” said that from October 2023 through November 2025, a co-worker said he “can’t stand gay people,” three co-workers used a homophobic slur to refer to her, another told her that she needed to “use a deeper voice” when speaking to men, two co-workers said they wouldn’t share a restroom with her, and one said he “did not like gay people like you” before removing his safety vest, which she took as an indication that he wanted to fight.
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She reported the incidents to her manager, the human resources department, and the company’s hotline, but the company allegedly took no corrective action.
She then took time off on November to care for her husband under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), a 1993 federal law that gives eligible workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year to provide familial medical care. During that time, human resources told her that a co-worker has accused her of touching his cheek or blowing a kiss at him during an October meeting — she denied both accusations. The company neither re-interviewed her nor mentioned any further investigation, she said.
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She returned to work in early December, reportedly worked without incident until December 29, and was notified by letter on December 30 that she had been fired for allegedly harassing an employee. Her lawsuit calls the allegation a “false and pretextual” justification for her firing, which occurred only after her discrmination complaints and FMLA leave.
Her suit alleges that PepsiCo illegally fostered a hostile work environment, discrimination, and retaliation under FMLA and Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which forbids workplace bias based sex and other personal characteristics.
The 2020 Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County determined that anti-LGBTQ+ workplace discrimination violates Title VII’s prohibition against sex-based discrimination.
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