Gay Man Sues, Claiming Halloween Store Boss Used Homophobic Slurs and Threatened Him

[Celerity]

LGBTQ+ advocacy group Fairness West Virginia filed a lawsuit on Trevor Anderson’s behalf after he says a manager at a Spirit Halloween store threatened him, using anti-gay slurs.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/gay-man-sues-claiming-halloween-store-boss-used-homophobic-slurs-and-threatened-him



Trevor Anderson doesn’t recognize himself anymore. He hasn’t felt happiness in such a long time that he misses smiling. Anderson’s friends often tell him that they can see his pain radiating from his body, and he confesses over the phone that it hurts him to “know that they can see.” When he leaves his house, Anderson covers up with a mask and a baseball cap so no one can get a glimpse of his face. He doesn’t want anyone to recognize him and think to themselves, “Oh, that’s the guy I saw on the news.” “It’s ruining my life,” he tells The Daily Beast. “It’s ruining my friendships. It’s ruining my relationships. I’m not Trevor anymore. I can’t believe that one man has completely changed my life, to where I don’t even recognize my feelings and my mind.”

LGBTQ+ advocacy group Fairness West Virginia filed a lawsuit on Anderson’s behalf in March after he says a manager at a Spirit Halloween store in Charleston berated him with homophobic slurs and threatened him. The altercation began, Anderson says, in October when he was returning some items purchased the day before. Anderson had been assembling a costume for a Clue-themed Halloween party, and his inspiration was Mr. Green, portrayed as a closeted gay man in a 1985 film adaptation of the board game.

As a queer person himself, Anderson decided to liberate Mr. Green by giving him a coming out party fit for 2022. Aiming for a more gender-fluid interpretation of the character, he purchased a plaid mini-skirt and a belly shirt, among other random accessories. Some of the items didn’t fit, and he had hoped to either get his money back or receive store credit.

But after approaching the front counter, Anderson says he was confronted by a manager who refused to allow him to return the purchases. Identified in the lawsuit as Thelmon Penn, Anderson recognized the man immediately: Penn was one of several Spirit Halloween employees who he alleges followed him around the store the previous day while he decided what to buy. Anderson says he wondered at first whether the staffers thought he was stealing, before he realized that they just wanted to gawk at him.

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