September 12, 2009, Oakland, CA - Just a few days before she was fired in June 2008, Ann Williams of El Cerrito, a Navy veteran and former mayor of Pinole who is openly lesbian, was fed up with months of taunts and anti-gay comments from a male co-worker at the Oakland Regional Office of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Matters had reached the point where she feared for her safety, she said.

So she went to her superiors, complaining of anti-gay harassment and a hostile work environment. Another co-worker, Navy veteran Jamie Foxx, of Sebastopol, a straight woman, came forward as a witness.

Less than a week afterward, both were fired on the same day, their termination letters citing poor performance during their training period despite the fact the two have documents showing they received positive reviews not long before.

Convinced their dismissals were in retaliation for speaking up about what they viewed to be harassment, the women filed separate claims with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in San Francisco about a month after their termination.

Both are awaiting hearings. Williams' case will be heard in November, and Fox's has not yet been scheduled.

In the meantime, neither has been able to find work, Williams' car is about to be repossessed, and both say the emotional toll has been immeasurable.

"I never experienced anything like this in my life," Williams, 59, said during an interview in her home. "I'm in tears all the time about this. We are professionals. We wanted to do something good and work with veterans. And this is how we were treated in the VA. We want (the VA) to be held accountable, and we want back pay and compensation."

"This was a career for me, with potential for advancement in the VA," Fox said. "I just spoke up on Ann's behalf on principle. I felt I did the right thing and that I was protected under EEOC rules, but apparently not."

Officials at the Oakland VA office said they are prohibited by law from commenting on pending personnel cases or even confirming that such cases exist.

"But what I can tell you is that the VA is fully committed to supporting a workplace free from all forms of discrimination," said Jim Brubaker, assistant director of the Oakland regional office. "We have a zero-tolerance policy. Our policy, VA-wide, is to examine, investigate and resolve any allegations of discrimination."

Fox and Williams both came to the Oakland VA as veterans service representatives in the same group of new hires in November 2007. They hadn't known each other before and were merely cordial co-workers on the job.

Then a male co-worker hired the following month almost immediately began making fun of Williams' southern accent, Williams and Fox said. And when he found out Williams was a lesbian, he began an onslaught of anti-gay comments and "poisoning" other workers against her, Williams said.

"In a training class, this man would ridicule (Ann) with derogatory facial expressions and gestures behind her back, and others were giggling," Fox, 40, said. "I brought it up to the supervisors. It was totally unprofessional."

"I couldn't understand what was going on," Williams said. "I was friendly to everybody. I was doing my work. Then people started shunning me. It was very painful to me. I didn't want to rock the boat, so I put up with it for a while. Then things got to where I suspected this person was meddling with my work papers, moving things from my desk, hiding important papers at the bottom of piles. That's what scared me, and I told my supervisor about it, which is documented."

During a training session held in Arkansas, another worker told Fox that Williams was "the kind of girl who should be taken in the locker room, wrapped in a towel and beaten," Fox said.

"The towel comment - I was stunned," Williams said. "I've never been confronted with that kind of hatred."

Former VA employee Bruce Choy of Milpitas, who was hired in the same group as Williams and Fox and also later terminated on performance-related issues, said he too heard derogatory comments.

"One guy referred to Ann as a dyke," he said. "I noticed people were treating her differently. It was very obvious."

Williams and Fox thought their verbal and written complaints to supervisors were being ignored, and they said little action was taken to resolve the problems, which continued for several months. Finally, in June 2008, Williams asked to file a formal EEOC complaint.

"Five days later, I was fired," she said. "I had named Jamie as a witness, and she was fired too, about a half an hour after me."

Through the legal discovery process, the women have collected stacks of documents related to their cases, including e-mail conversations with supervisors. Williams has contacted Rep. George Miller's office, and Miller's aides confirmed he sent a letter to the EEOC requesting a final report on the case.

"Our biggest issue is that this is a government agency, second largest to the Department of Defense," Fox said. "The government makes the laws we all are supposed to abide by. They should be held to the gold standard."

Oakland Tribune