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Va. man claims TGI Friday’s fired him over HIV status

Friday, May 23, 2008 - via Washington Blade

An HIV-positive gay man is alleging discrimination and wrongful termination against the company that owns TGI Friday’s restaurants, prompting the Office of Human Rights in Alexandria, Va., to schedule an open hearing May 31. James McCray, a Woodbridge, Va., resident, says he was fired from his position as general manager on July 28, 2006, after he disclosed he is HIV positive to Robert D’Anna, the newly appointed director of operations for the TGI Friday’s restaurants in the Washington area. McCray filed a complaint against Carlson Restaurants with the Office of Human Rights on Nov. 16, 2006.The Office of Human Rights, a contracted agency for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, already issued a determination in August 2007 stating that there was reasonable cause for discrimination. The office is holding the May 31 hearing because Carlson Restaurants wants to present new evidence in the case. The commission reviewing the case is required to make another determination within 30 days after the hearing.McCray writes in his complaint that D’Anna (known as Robert Rocher at the time of the firing) acted strangely after learning about McCray’s diagnosis.“His facial expression changed from inviting to a hard expressionless look then he drew back from me,” McCray writes.The next day, D’Anna summoned McCray to the TGI Friday’s in Washington Reagan National Airport and terminated him.McCray argues that his termination violated the Human Rights Code for Alexandria and the Americans with Disabilities Act, which protect people who are HIV positive.In response to the accusations, Carlson Restaurants says McCray was fired because of concerns with restaurant operations and his integrity.The restaurant chain claims McCray lied to D’Anna on July 28, 2006 — the same day McCray says he acknowledged he is HIV positive — about an unrelated matter.And on the same day, Carlson Restaurants says McCray arrived at work at 9:15 a.m., leaving an hourly employee with the charge of opening the restaurant. Company policy requires that a manger show up to open the restaurant at 7 a.m. and be on the premises when hourly workers are there. In response, McCray says that an hourly employee had been opening the restaurant without a manager for many years and that this practice continued after his termination.

Weekend Wrap-up

Well, I did wash a window.

Backtracking, the Memorial Eve event wasn't the crush I was led to believe. I estimate the crowd was around 700 people, and my crowd estimates are notoriously accurate. I have an ability to look at how many bodies are on each floor and give a pretty educated guess as to how many people are in the building. It's a pretty valuable skill if you are trying to avoid being shut down by the FDNY for over-crowding. So even though the crowd was smaller than expected, I still ended up working at the front door for a couple of hours. Apparently, another one of my skills seems to be in crowd control and managing a waiting line. I assume because I'm so bossy. And seeing as how our security was late getting to the event, I had to step in and manage the outside line. We got a couple hundred people through a ticket line and ID check and in to the club spending money in about 1/2 an hour so, well done me. I left the club in capable hands and set on cruise control around 1am.

Memorial Day was absolutely beautiful. Sunny, breezy, hot in the sun and cool in the shade. But I woke up exhausted, and as the day progressed I developed a splitting headache. But after lolling around the apartment in the afternoon, I found the day running away and I was determined to make something of it, so after washing the dirtiest window in the building, the one facing the alley in the kitchen, I decided to finally take the bike out. I hadn't had the chance to tighten all the screws and size it for my comfort. So I rolled it down to the front steps and tweaked the brakes, tightened the pedals and raised the handlebars. Thinking it was ready to roll I set off for the East side waterfront and then down towards lower Manhattan. It was then the vibrations of the ride started to take their toll. The handlebars weren't tight enough and started to shift and come loose. The ultra heavy lock I attached shifted weight and started hitting me in the heel. The seat lock was obviously not set correctly and began to incrementally lower, and then tilt forward and back as I shifted my weight. By the time I turned around and headed for home it seemed as if the whole bike was about to fly apart under me before I made it back. It was a wobbly, clanking comedy of bad bike maintenance. The minute I got home I re-adjusted the handlebars and completely removed the plastic tire flaps that kept dropping down and dragging on the tires. I didn't take it back out for another ride as my headache was no better and quite frankly, that short ride only highlighted how pathetically out of shape I've become. I was beat.

So I locked the bike up in the stairwell and fetched Jet. I still intended to give him his bath, but after taking him to the dog park and shopping for some dinner, I couldn't keep my eyes open another second and literally plopped down on the couch and napped sitting up for about 45 minutes. After that I made a late dinner and cleaned out the fridge, as I had set the freezer to defrost from the night before. I watched a little of the Top Chef and Enterprise marathons and then climbed in to bed full of aches and groans, before settling in and falling in to a well deserved and very deep sleep. My dirty dog was right next to me.

Calm Before The Storm

I came in to work over an hour early as we have a big Memorial Day concert tonight for 1500 or so people. I needed an hour of quiet to plan out security and how the door should be run to get people in as quickly and safely as possible. I also wanted to review and clean out my e-mail regarding the event so I didn't get hit with any last minute surprises. The music is supposed to be mostly Latin Freestyle and very "old school" so I expect a well behaved and slightly older crowd. The only foreseeable problem is that we can't hold anywhere near 1500 people so there may be some very disappointed and potentially irritated people stuck out on the sidewalk.

The bartenders are due to arrive any minute so my quiet time is about to be shattered. My intent is to get everyone in and get the event up and running and then slip out the back door and finally start my own two day weekend. My plans so far include giving Jet a bath and washing my windows. Such a glamorous life!

Cancel My Room At The Gambia Hilton

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh says he will “cut off the head” of any homosexual caught in his country.

Monday 19 May 2008

Addressing supporters at the end of his meet the farmers tour here Sunday,
Jammeh also ordered any hotel or motel housing homosexuals to close down, adding that owners of such facilities would also be in trouble.
He said the Gambia was a country of believers, indicating that no sinful and immoral act as homosexual would be tolerated in the country.
He warned all homosexuals in the country to leave, noting that a legislation “stricter than those in Iran ” concerning the vice would be introduced soon.
President Jammeh said he was bent on making the Gambia one of the best countries to live in, adding that his government had spent over US$ 100 million towards the development of the country since 1994.
He said, however, that almost 98 per cent of the amount had gone to foreigners.

Royalty

I bought an absolutely gorgeous overstuffed bedspread from the Housing Works Design On A Dime benefit I attended two weeks ago. I wanted to buy something to support the effort and at first I found the cutest ceramic dog bowl with a golden bone at the bottom that I was going to buy for Jet even though he has a perfectly fine and pretty handsome blue and white bowl now. Unfortunately I forgot the first rule of thrift shopping in that if you see something you may or may not want to buy, it's best to pick it up and carry it until you decide, lest some other less deserving shopper snatch it from you before you return. Which is just what happenend. So I circled around again and realized I had overlooked this bedspread that matched most of the sheets I own as they are all various shades of blue, purple, yellow and gold. I don't know if the picture does it justice, but the stitching and detail work on this are quite beautiful. And if you notice in this picture, even though Jet didn't get a new food bowl, he apparently is quite content with my second selection.

America Votes - The Important One

Aside from how gosh-darn fun it is to say Yamaguchi (try it, you'll see!), and aside from how much I want to throw a serious bone into Mark Ballas' hot dancer ass, you have to admit after tonight's final dances that the Yamagooch was far and away the superior dancer in every respect. It was so outrageously lopsided that I decided I couldn't take the chance that America would bungle yet another important vote and signed up at ABC.com to cast three consecutive votes for Yamagooch and her partner, Hot-Ass. And you should too.

Well, This Basically Sucks

BY CHRISTINA BOYLE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Sunday, May 18th 2008

HIV infection among New York City teens has risen to its highest level since 2001, a new data analysis shows.

The number of young people ages 13 to 19 infected with the AIDS virus rose 29% between 2004 and 2006, despite efforts to curb the spread.

The number of teenagers contracting HIV dropped after 2001 but has increased steadily since 2004. The increase among teens has outpaced the increase in HIV infection among gay men.

In 2004, there were 130 new infections among teens. That jumped to 168 new cases two years later.

The figures were culled from city Department of Health data by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn-Queens), who has proposed a four-step approach to tackling the problem, including more funding for sex education and linking HIV-prevention and substance-abuse programs.

"There is a false notion that HIV has now been managed and controlled," Weiner said Saturday. "We need to stop treating this like yesterday's problem, and like a challenge we need to face today."

Weiner also warned of the possible link between methamphetamine use and behavior leading to HIV infections among gay men.

Urine My Life

Jet's antibiotics finally kicked in yesterday. I was pretty pleased to come home from work last night (after another 15 hr. shift) and find no wet spots soaked in to the couch or bed. I took the opportunity today to strip the bed and couch cover and bring down two big bags of laundry. Everything has been laundered and vacuumed, and I'm looking forward to getting in to bed tonight with a set of freshly laundered sheets. And hopefully the living room will stop smelling like dog pee.

As a variation on a theme, Friday night found me getting on a downtown subway train around 12:30am to head for home. I usually travel an hour or two later so there were quite a few people in the subway at that time with me. In due time a train pulled in and everyone got on. A women entered the same car as I did. There were several people at the other end and only one homeless guy sprawled across three seats on our end. I took a quick whiff of the air to make sure that everyone hadn't abandoned that end of the car because he threw up or shit himself. Detecting nothing noxious in the air I sat down. As the door closed, and the train headed for 42nd St. I heard a sound. I looked over to see a very impressive stream of pee arcing over from where the homeless man was laying down right in to the middle of the car. I was shocked. As was the women who was sitting closest to him. She quickly got up and moved to the far end of the car. All the while, the homeless dude continued to pee, and pee and pee. Without ever sitting up or moving noticeably. In his defense, considering the sheer volume, he must have really had to go. I seriously began to wonder if he would finish before we reached the next station. As if on cue, the stream stopped just as we were pulling in to 42nd St. leaving only a massive puddle of piss in the middle of the car. As Times Square is one of the busiest stops in New York City, the doors opened and about 10-12 people got on. And they all walked right through the puddle of pee. Nobody made much of an effort to avoid it, and only one man speculated aloud to his girlfriend that it "might be piss". I only considered leaving the car when our next couple of stops caused the car to angle up enough that it was possible the pee would snake backwards towards my currently dry island of non-pee. It turned out not to be, and three stops later I left them all to their now sleeping and infinitely more comfortable homeless companion.

Heave!

Nothing says not enough sleep like a 5AM (mostly water, thank god) on-the-bed barf by everyone's favorite dog. That was followed by two more in the living room (hurrah for hardwood floors!). Which is why I was up till almost 5:40 cleaning up watery puke and changing sheets. I shudder to think what would have happened if I had actually been asleep and been woken up to him blorching water all over me and the bed.

In other boring dog news, I finally brought Jet for a much overdue visit to the vet. He had begun leaking pee on the bed and furniture wherever he laid down for any length of time. He had this problem when I first adopted him but I had read it could be the result of being neutered, and after a few months he stopped leaking so I assumed that was it. But about three weeks ago he started up again, and was leaving stinky wet spots on my bed and couch cover. Another bit of Googling symptoms led me to believe that he may actually have a urinary infection. So I finally broke down and made an appointment for him this past Monday.

What can I say, my boy was a model patient. After some initial barking in the waiting room he allowed the vet to check his glands and touch his face and even stick a thermometer up his butt. Although he didn't enjoy that part very much. No accounting for taste. All of this without being muzzled and not a growl or a grimace from my brave little soldier. Of course, it helped I think that the exam table was really slippery and he spent most of his efforts trying not to let his feet slide out from under. He even let the vet open his mouth and check his teeth.

The result was that except for possibly confirming the infection and giving Jet a shot and 'script for antibiotics, the vet confirmed I have a very well behaved, reasonably healthy four year old boy. No word on whether or not he really is a Jew. And in a few days, hopefully, the leak will dry up.

Staying Put For Now

I met with my supervisor on Monday. He gave me the details of my promotion and while the substance of my job is not expected to change, the fact that I'm replacing a very capable manager and still doing my own job means the reality will probably mean that I will be putting in more hours, at least immediately after the transition. I also gratefully received a generous salary increase and a new "title" (still not officially Duchess) that takes effect next week. We took a couple of minutes and talked about the direction the venue is likely to take. While he could offer no guarantees about the future, and really who can, if things play out as the powers that be intend, it will either be an exciting accomplishment or a colossal flop. And I'm OK with that.

I also had a first interview with the organization looking to hire me away. To say that I was less than impressed with the experience would be an understatement. It was a phone interview, and the woman conducting it couldn't have been more inept and boring. It was 1/2 hour of the most basic questions: "Tell me about this job", and "Why did you leave?". Over and over, with out any kind of follow-up question or even an acknowledgement that I was speaking. I literally bored myself. I was fishing about for any sense of where she wanted the conversation to go or what she was looking to hear about and got absolutely nothing back. I finally gave up and tried to extricate myself from the interview as fast as possible. And to think, the headhunter that was "sponsoring" me called in advance to tell me to "bring some enthusiasm" to the interview. I could get a better reaction from a lamp. At this point, even if they decide to pursue the interview process I'm planning on calling it quits.

Best to dance with the devil you know.