Evans v. Georgia Regional Hospital

Jameka Evans (plaintiff) was a security officer at Georgia Regional Hospital (the hospital) (defendant). Evans was a gay woman who did not openly discuss her sexual orientation at work. Evans had a masculine gender presentation: for example, she wore the type of uniform that men usually wore and kept a short haircut. Evans claimed that the hospital’s chief, Charles Moss (defendant) was rude to her, gave her an adverse shift change, and promoted a less-qualified person, Shanika Johnson (defendant) as her supervisor. Evans claimed that Johnson also harassed her. Evans believed that the harassment, unfair promotion, and shift change were designed to target her for termination based on her sexual orientation and gender nonconformity. Evans initiated a human-resources investigation, but the hospital determined that there was no evidence that Evans was singled out or targeted for termination. Evans then filed a pro se Title VII complaint against the hospital, Moss, Johnson, and a human-resources employee (defendants), alleging that Evans experienced discrimination because of her sexual orientation and gender nonconformity and that the hospital retaliated against Evans after she complained to human resources. The federal magistrate judge recommended dismissing Evans’s case, noting that sexual orientation is not a basis for discrimination under Title VII, and finding that Evans’s gender-nonconformity claim was merely another way to claim sexual-orientation discrimination. The district court adopted the magistrate’s findings without further comment and dismissed Evans’s case with prejudice. Evans appealed, and the court appointed Lambda Legal to represent her.