Gay ex-employee alleges sexual harassment, bias by Rev. Jackson and staff

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A former employee of civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. has filed a discrimination complaint with Chicago’s Commission on Human Rights, alleging that he was harassed by colleagues and by Jackson himself, and was terminated from his job at Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition based on his sexual orientation.

The complaint was filed against Jackson and Rainbow PUSH in early 2010 by Tommy R. Bennett, 55, an openly gay Chicago man who is known for past appearances on The Tom Joyner Morning Show where fans know him as “Aruba Tommy.”

Though it was filed less than three months after Bennett’s termination in December 2009, the complaint only recently received the attention after a Chicago LGBT newspaper, the Windy City Times, published an article on the subject, which was then shared on Twitter by Joyner and others.

Click here to view a Grio slideshow of Rev. Jackson’s top 10 most controversial moments

The Chicago commission is still investigating the complaint and has two years from the time it was filed, according to Bennett’s attorney Thomas Leverso said. The commission declined to release the complaint citing the pending investigation, but Leverso provided a copy to theGrio, along with the PUSH response to the complaint.

In its filing, PUSH and Jackson denied all of Bennett’s allegations — including the claims that he was fired due to his sexuality, harassed on the job, and was forced to perform improper job duties because he is gay.

In a statement released Thursday evening, a PUSH spokesperson wrote: “The Rainbow PUSH Coalition and Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. unequivocally deny Tommy Bennett’s false claims of harassment, retaliation and discrimination. We are fully cooperating with the Chicago Commission on Human Relations and expect to be fully exonerated.”

In the complaint, Bennett describes what he calls “demeaning and demoralizing tasks” that he was asked to perform as part of his duties for PUSH — everything from escorting women to and from Jackson’s hotel room and cleaning up after sexual intercourse, to fetching erectile dysfunction pills for Jackson and, in one instance, being asked to apply ointment to a rash on Jackson’s inner thigh. He was asked to do these things, he says, because of his gender and his sexual orientation.

“They asked me to travel with the Reverend for just a couple of weeks, and that turned into a year,” Bennett said in an interview with theGrio. “I would never apply for a job to pack his clothes, clean up the hotel room after he met different folks there, buy his underclothes. [But] I tried my best because I loved serving the community, and before my feelings, I put the community first.
In 2007, Bennett was hired at Rainbow PUSH, Jackson’s Chicago-based civil rights organization as National Director of Community Affairs, a job that initially put him in charge of voter registration efforts and a legal clinic run by the organization, among other things. In his two and half years at PUSH, Bennett says his role evolved from his Community Affairs position to filling in as National Field Director and as Jackson’s personal travel assistant.

“I enthusiastically welcome Tommy Bennett to the Rainbow PUSH national staff,” Rev. Jackson said in a statement when Bennett was hired. “He brings a wealth of experience, dedication and commitment to his position of National Director of Community Affairs, and will strengthen Rainbow PUSH connections throughout the progressive community.”

In his complaint, Bennett said he spoke to Jackson and others about a heavy workload and many of the “humiliating” duties that went along with his additional roles.

“Mr. Bennett believes he was forced to do these tasks due to his sexual orientation,” the complaint said, adding that he never received a response from PUSH’s leadership when he complained.

In their legal response to the claim, Rainbow PUSH acknowledged that Bennett’s employment was terminated in December 2009, but cites a “general reduction in force” with Bennett’s duties as the cause.

The group said in its statement that it “does not condone or tolerate discrimination of any form,” adding later that Bennett’s allegations “are an attempt to malign Rev. Jackson and the organization, and are hurtful and harmful to the progressive community.”

In his decades of civil rights leadership, Jackson, 69, has received more than 40 honorary doctorate degrees for his work in human and civil rights. He was one of the first African-American civil rights leaders to become an outspoken proponent of gay rights.

While a candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1987, Jackson spoke out at an LGBT March on Washington where more than 200,000 activists rallied for increased funding for AIDS research and gay rights.

‘’[W]e insist on equal protection under the law for every American, for workers’ rights, women’s rights, for the rights of religious freedom, the rights of individual privacy, for the rights of sexual preference,” Jackson said in a speech at the time. “We come together for the rights of all American people.”

In an interview with theGrio, Bennett said, “I don’t think Reverend Jackson is homophobic, but I think he definitely has homophobic staff.”

Bennett describes having one of his direct reports at PUSH being reassigned after the woman told Jackson that “she did not want to be under (Bennett’s) supervision because Mr. Bennett is homosexual.” That woman, Bennett alleges, would make a limp wrist gesture every time she and Tommy passed in the hallway.

“Mr. Bennett understood the limp wrist gesture to mock his sexual orientation — homosexual,” the complaint says.

In an interview with theGrio, Bennett said he has been unemployed since his termination from PUSH. He said he plans to seek damages from Jackson, but the complaint references no dollar amounts.

Additional reporting by theGrio’s Todd Johnson and Monica Leas