Manager fired after wearing religious T-shirts to oppose Pride Month gets settlement
- An Iowa man reached a settlement with Eaton Corp., the company that fired him after he wore Christian-themed T-shirts during Pride Month.
- The lawsuit claimed the shirts were in response to the company's promotion of Pride Month and expressed the employee's religious beliefs.
- The company argued the firing was based on legitimate business reasons and not discriminatory.
An Iowa man has reached an out-of-court settlement with the former employer he accused of firing him for wearing Christian-themed T-shirts to work in response to the company’s endorsement of Pride Month.
In June 2024, Cosby “Corey” Cunningham sued Eaton Corp., a global power management company with an office in Davenport, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, alleging violations of his civil rights.
Cunningham, a self-described born-again, churchgoing Christian, was hired by Eaton in 2019 as a quality manager with responsibilities for product development related to military and aerospace activity.
According to his lawsuit, Eaton initiated a Pride Month ceremony on June 2, 2023, by raising a pride flag in front of its main building and encouraging employees to wear specific colors in support of the effort. Management also sent emails to the staff offering pride-themed T-shirts for workers to purchase, the lawsuit claims.
That day, Cunningham alleges, he began wearing T-shirts at work that displayed or referred to Bible verses. According to the lawsuit, he wanted to “express his sincerely held religious belief in Jesus Christ and the Bible.”
Over the next eight weeks, Eaton managers allegedly held a series of meetings with Cunningham to express their concern that his actions were perceived by others as inflammatory and that they might violate company policy.
According to the lawsuit, management refused Cunningham’s requests for a religious accommodation to wear the T-shirts, threatened him with dismissal, and sent him home on at least two occasions for refusing to stop wearing the shirts. On Aug. 23, 2023, the company fired Cunningham, the lawsuit alleges.
Conservative institute provides legal representation
In his lawsuit, Cunningham stated that he believes “homosexual conduct is sinful” and that he had been called upon to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others. Doing so, he claimed, required him to share with others even those biblical teachings that are offensive to those who don’t share such beliefs.
In its response to those claims, lawyers for the Eaton Corp. argued Cunningham was not entitled to any damages because any actions taken by the company against him “were legitimate and non-discriminatory and non-retaliatory,” and were based on legitimate business reasons.
Representing Cunningham in his lawsuit was Robert Anderson of Atlantic, Iowa, an attorney for the Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative organization that said it works to promote religious freedom and parental rights. The Southern Poverty Law Center has characterized the Pacific Justice Institute as “an anti-LGBT hate group” whose founder has “compared legalized gay marriage to Hitler and the Nazis’ ascent in Germany.”
Anderson said on May 22 that he’s not at liberty to comment on the specifics of the settlement that was reached in April. Attorneys for Eaton Corp. did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
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