Gay Ex-Porn Star Wins Lawsuit Against University that Fired Him
Court orders Italy's Sapienza University to pay fine for "unjustified dismissal" and compensate professor Ruggero Freddi.
A former gay adult film actor has won a lawsuit against an Italian university that allegedly fired him for his past escapades on film.
Ruggero Freddi, who worked under the name Carlo Masi from 2004 to 2014, successfully sued Sapienza University in Rome, Italy, alleging that the university subjected him to a hostile work environment before unfairly firing him.
After his stint in the adult film industry, Freddi obtained two degrees for mathematics and engineering before starting doctoral research and becoming a professor at the Faculty of Engineering at Sapienza University in 2017.
But in some people’s eyes, he couldn’t seem to overcome the stigma associated with his past in the gay adult film industry.
“It’s just my opinion. But I felt like there were prejudices around me, which were beyond my skills as a teacher and as a data analyst, the role I occupy today,” he told the Italian newspaper Repubblica.
According to Gay Ireland News, Freddi noted that some of the extracurricular activities he proposed were canceled by the university, often without explanation.
In one instance, he helped organize a meeting with a student group to talk about HIV, but the meeting was canceled after administrators learned of the proposal.
In 2019, after being offered a position to teach a mathematics course, and working for 60 of the 100 estimated hours involved with the course, the university dismissed him, without any explanation, and refused to pay him for the work he’d done.
He then filed a lawsuit in the Civil Court of Rome alleging he had been terminated unfairly. On January 24, the judge ruled in his favor, ordering the university to pay out 2,500 euros, or about $2,669 U.S. dollars, for the hours he made put into the mathematics course.
The court also ordered the university to pay a fine of 1,500 euros, or $1,581, for “unjustified dismissal.”
“I was forced to sue,” Freddi said of the ruling in his favor. “And I won. I hope my case gives courage to all Ph.D. students who are exploited after years of studies and specializations. Now I have a normal job, with a salary. I hope that others will also find the courage to speak out.”
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