Lesbian Firefighter Awarded $1.3 Million in Harrassment Settlement
Kansas City is awarding $1.3 million to Rebecca Reynolds, who was harassed by co-workers due to her gender, age, and sexual orientation.
Rebecca Reynolds, a firefighter and paramedic for Kansas City, Missouri, will receive a $1.3 million settlement from the city for enduring 21 years of ageist, sexist, and anti-LGBTQ harassment from her male co-workers.
The Kansas City Council approved the settlement on September 26. It’s the largest in city history according to The Kansas City Star, and will be awarded to the 61-year-old in exchange for her retiring from the fire department and agreeing to drop two lawsuits alleging discrimination based on her gender, sexual orientation, and age.
Reynolds also promised not to file a third lawsuit based on an incident in which a fellow firefighter allegedly urinated on things in her office in 2023 while she was on extended medical leave.
Reynolds joined the department in 2003 after graduating from the fire academy at age 40.
Over the next two decades, she claimed to have been subjected to mistreatment and abuse by fellow firefighters and superiors due to being a woman, a lesbian, and older than most of her peers, as detailed in a report from the Star.
Reynolds said her colleagues repeatedly demeaned and challenged her authority during emergency calls, even screaming or swearing at her in front of patients and others. Her superiors yelled at her, telling her she was “not normal” due to her sexual orientation.
Another co-worker criticized how she decided to set up her equipment as a medic working a Kansas City Chiefs game in 2022. “That’s why they shouldn’t hire old people,” he apparently said.
In March 2023, another firefighter allegedly tripped her on purpose, causing a knee injury that required surgery.
In August of that same year, she was assigned to a station at Kansas City International Airport, where she had converted a storage room into a small office.
In September, while on medical leave to address the knee injury, one of her fellow firefighters allegedly urinated on items in her office, including training books, a recreational bodyboard, a CD player, and other belongings amounting to $3,000 in value.
When she returned to work, she noticed a strange smell in her office, and saw that the items were wet with a yellow liquid. She reported the vandalism to police, noting that she had experienced problems with a co-worker, and took a urine sample from her CD player for them to analyze.
Police matched the urine sample to the DNA of firefighter Pleaze Robinson III, who was subsequently charged with first-degree felony harassment and felony property damage.
The Missouri Commission on Human Rights recently granted Reynolds permission to sue the city concerning the incident, but she has not yet filed that lawsuit.
Reynolds’ two other lawsuits, filed in 2023 and 2024, were headed toward trial prior to the settlement being approved.
Bert Braud, of the Pophawm Law Firm, who is representing Reynolds, told the Star that the city “didn’t really have much of a choice” in resolving Reynolds’ complaints.
The Kansas City Fire Department has been subjected to a number of discrimination lawsuits over the years, paying out $2.5 million in judgments, attorneys’ fees, and court costs from 2000 to 2020.
Based on a 2020 investigative story series by the Star examining the department’s hiring and promotion practices, the U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into how those practices may have discriminated against Black firefighters seeking career advancement.
The Justice Department probe remains ongoing.
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.