Portland State University alumnus and 2014 Oregon Teacher of the Year Brett Bigham had a role in influencing the Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday that an employer cannot fire someone for being homosexual or transgender.
Bigham’s experience as a gay man enduring discrimination was included in an amicus curiae brief, a legal document that was submitted in support of fired LGBT employees whose cases reached the Supreme Court. Bigham said the Court’s 6-3 decision for LGBT workplace rights validated his decision to stand up to discrimination.
“This is the Supreme Court saying that what happened to me was wrong and justified me saying that I could fight back,” said Bigham, who received his master’s degree in special education from the PSU College of Education in 2002.
This week’s decision, along with an apology from his former employer, is a victory for Bigham and others who have endured similar discrimination.
Bigham said he became involved in the Supreme Court case because the Education Civil Rights Alliance heard about his case and invited him. Lambda Legal also offered support, but he already had representation through his union, but he remained a resource to legal advocacy organizations. His case was cited in the brief, which said “In 2014, Brett Bigham was Oregon’s first openly gay teacher of the year; the following year, he was fired in retaliation for complaining of LGBT discrimination.”
For Bigham, the problems began shortly after the Oregon Department of Education named him the 2014 Oregon Teacher of the Year. At the time, he was a special education teacher for the Multnomah Education Service District (MESD). During a speech about his award in January 2014, he shared in passing that he is a gay man. According to a July 1, 2015, memo by Andrea Damewood, an investigator in Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI), following the speech Bigham’s supervisor told him “someone is going to shoot you in the head” if he continued to talk about his sexual orientation.
Bigham reported the incident to the school district administration and to his union. In response, the district said that Bigham was distracted from his work and had too many absences because of his Teacher of the Year duties, according to BOLI records. Bigham filed an initial BOLI complaint concerning his interactions in the workplace.
“The Supreme Court ruling is so important because people are treated to racist and homophobic behavior all the time,” Bigham said.
Bigham’s struggles did not end with his initial complaint. He ended up filing two additional complaints because he said the MESD administration and his supervisor retaliated after his complaint of discrimination. The MESD administration said he was not allowed to speak in public without approval, and his requests to attend Teacher of the Year events, including speaking before LGBT groups, were denied, Damewood’s memo said. In 2015, Bigham became the first Oregon special education teacher to receive the National Education Association (NEA) award for teaching excellence.
The MESD administration sent him an email in February 2015 saying it would permit him to attend an NEA conference and awards ceremony, but only if he withdrew his initial BOLI complaint, Damewood’s memo said. Educational assistants working in his classroom also corroborated incidences of discrimination, records show. Damewood’s memo states that her investigation offered substantial evidence of discrimination and retaliation based on whistleblowing, sexual orientation and opposing unfair employment practices.
Shortly after the MESD administration’s email about the BOLI complaint, Bigham entered into mediation with the school district, but while in a meeting with the district, an announcement was sent out that he was terminated. He later reached a settlement of $140,000 with the MESD and then withdrew his BOLI complaints. His supervisor and the MESD superintendent have since resigned.
Bigham said his experience illustrates the “horrible things that can happen to LGBT people.” But the Supreme Court’s ruling gives him hope, and he stands by his actions.
“I fought like a bear,” Bigham said Monday in a post on Twitter. “My union lawyers were merciless.”
Things are going well for Bigham now. He continues to teach, working as a special education teacher for Portland Public Schools. In addition, MESD Board of Directors Chair Helen Ying issued a letter of apology Tuesday regarding any discrimination pertaining to the LGBT community and specifically citing Bigham’s experiences.
“We apologize to Mr. Brett Bigham,” Ying’s letter said. “No one should have to endure the discriminatory actions that Mr. Bigham describes experiencing at MESD. They were wrong when they occurred, just as they would be wrong today. We unequivocally reject discrimination, intimidation, harassment, bigotry, homophobia and racism in all its forms. We applaud the recent Supreme Court decision to outlaw workplace discrimination for LGBTQ people.”
Photo: PSU Alumnus Brett Bigham writes a column for the College of Education called “Your Mentor Teacher.”
To share stories on the College of Education, email Jillian Daley at jillian@pdx.edu.