Jury Awards Damages To Lesbian Employee Forced To Attend Religious Services That Condemned Her Sexual Orientation

In Mirella Salemi v. Gloria’s Tribeca, Inc., a New York state trial court jury awarded $400,000 in compensatory damages and $1.2 million in punitive damages to plaintiff who was a chef and manager of a restaurant and was constructively discharged.  According to a press release yesterday from plaintiff's attorneys, when restaurant owner Edward Globakar converted to Pentecostal Evangelical Christianity in 2004, he began closing the restaurant every Wednesday afternoon and forcing employees, including plaintiff who was a Catholic and a lesbian, to attend a prayer service which included condemnation of homosexuality. Also Globakar used slurs against homosexuals regularly at work, and  told plaintiff  to become more effeminate, marry a man and have children, or else she would go to hell.