[guest post by Dana]

CNN faces a $60 million dollar discrimination lawsuit filed against them for allegedly firing a technical operator because he’s gay and because he wore bright colors and mariachi outfits to work which were judged to be “too flamboyant”.

Kane, who started working at CNN in 2002, claims nobody at the news network ever informed him of a dress code or complained about the hot pink designer shirt he wore in his employee ID photo. Nor did he get any guff for the bright red track jacket, neon green soccer jersey or yellow track suit, with matching shoes and hat, that he wore at other times.

“It really saddens me,” the 33-year-old Kane said of losing his job as a microphone tech.

“I feel like the Rosa Parks of CNN. Maybe someone else won’t have to suffer the way I have,” he told the Daily News.

Kane’s unique attire was popular with with journalists Christiane Amanpour and Fareed Zakaria, the suit claims. It also claims that CNN anchor Erin Burnett cited him as the “best-dressed man” on her show. Kane, who is married to a Mexican man, would wear mariachi suits to work when they corresponded with current news cycle themes.

The suit alleges that when Kane’s supervisor, John Silva, learned he was gay, a hostile work environment ensued. Also, while at a well known club, the suit further alleges Silva approached Kane and told him not to wear a yellow or black mariachi suit to work “because it was too flamboyant for a male in our department.”

Silva also suggested to Kane that he might be a better fit in an “entertainment or makeup department.”

The “flamboyant” comment smacked of stereotyping to Kane, who thought it was related to disclosing his same-sex engagement.

The suit points out that from 2002 to 2008, the technical operations department where he worked had a tradition of wearing colorful shirts on Thursdays.

At one point, Kane said, a supervisor had offered him a $100 “bribe” to go to a TJ Maxx store if he would change out of his blue track suit — because Piers Morgan complained it was distracting him. Kane said he refused the money but threw a black CNN sweatshirt over the track suit.

The Daily News also notes,

CNN star Anderson Cooper, who is openly gay, witnessed Silva admonishing Kane about wearing a red track suit, according to the complaint.

“Mr. Cooper gave (Kane) his personal company email address and asked plaintiff to email him details of the nature of being bullied by his supervisor,” the suit said.

Kane was fired in 2013. CNN claims they have not yet seen the lawsuit.

–Dana

Yesterday I blogged about how a supporter of L.A. Superior Court judicial candidate Songhai “Sunny” Armstead abused copyright law to get a video removed from YouTube — a video that shows the candidate engaged in a racist appeal to black voters. I told you yesterday that a version of the video remains online, just without my preferred caption: “Judicial candidate: Vote for me because I’m black.”

I was a sucker. The version that remains online has edited out much of the candidate’s most blatant appeal to race.

Reader JWB explains what is going on in this video:

As the video provided by JWB notes, the video that remains online now has a jump at 4:24, which scrubs this quote that I highlighted in my original post on Armstead’s remarks:

Why is that significant? You heard about realignment. You heard about the injustice that happens in our court system already. And you guys have seen who — I’m sure we all know who’s in our jails and who comes before our judges in court, right? It’s people who look a lot like the people in this room. People who look a lot like me.

I’ve been a prosecuting attorney and I’ve seen how things do not work in our system. I see how people who are disenfranchised, do not have appropriate education, or who come from underrepresented communities do not get access to fair justice. And part of the problem is that our judges don’t have the same life experiences that we have. They don’t have the same empathy. They don’t have the same understanding. They cannot relate. They have very narrow experiences. And so when they see a person come before them, they think everyone that comes before them is a horrible gang member or a violent criminal. You know?

Our jails are full of nonviolent people who are either have substance abuse problems, mental health issues, lack of education, or who are foster kids. Those people don’t need to be in jail. [Applause]

You have the power to change that. There are 15 open seats right now. I am the only African American running. There’s only one Chicana running. Can you guess who else is running? Are there people who care about the people in this room? Probably not. I can’t speak before them, but probably not.

So what we have is this: a woman who supports the candidate has taken a video, the copyright of which she appears not to own, and is issuing takedown notices for videos that have the candidate’s full remarks. Meanwhile, she has edited her own video to remove some of the candidate’s most inflammatory statements.

I suspect the above video will be scrubbed by the anti-speech fascists today, so watch it while you can. Reader Sean has more commentary here:

My blogging time is short today, but come Monday, this has my full attention. I am going to find a foolproof way to host the video, on my site if necessary. I do not take kindly to people who try to rewrite history and use thuggish tactics to do so.

For now, I just have one question: is the embed on my original video still working, even though it has been taken down? Please tell me if you are able to view this:

Although the video itself at YouTube is gone, this embed still works for me. Can you see it? Please let me know in the comments.

If you can watch it, jump to 4:20 and see how my version of the video does not skip at 4:24, while the video by copyright thug and Armstead supporter Gail Copeland does.

See what I mean?

Meanwhile, time to contact my tech guy to see how I can go about hosting the full video on my blog.