Queering Sexual Harassment Law

Abstract

Franchina v. City of Providence, a recent First Circuit decision involving the sexual harassment of a lesbian firefighter, may be the first judicial opinion of the #MeToo movement. But the opinion also points beyond the #MeToo movement’s dominant conception of sexual harassment. By foregrounding the experience of a lesbian firefighter harassed by her male subordinates, Franchina describes harassment that is sex-based without always being sexualized, thereby supplementing the stories of unwelcome sexual advances and assaults that #MeToo has emphasized. Franchina’s brutal narrative demonstrates, as Vicki Schultz argued twenty years ago, that sexual harassment is motivated not by sexual desire so much as a desire to maintain gender roles. And by showing this, Franchina also illustrates why harassment based on sexual orientation — which similarly arises from and enforces gender stereotypes — constitutes sex discrimination prohibited by Title VII.

This Essay is part of the Yale Law Journal Forum's Collection "#MeToo and the Future of Sexual Harassment Law."

Keywords: Sexual Harassment, #MeToo, Sexual Orientation, Title VII, First Circuit, Franchina v. City of Providence