SidelineCameras said:Small point of clarification but it does affect your argument enough to bring it up:
In order for something to be illegal in the workplace, a worker needs to belong to a protected class. Race, religion, and gender are all federally protected classes. Even if it creates a hostile work environment, you can't legally argue it's hostile if you're not protected. If my asshole co-worker is a Giants fan and makes my life miserable all day every day talking about Superbowl 42 and 46, I still can't claim that's a hostile work environment because "Patriots fan" is not a protected class.
As of today, sexual orientation is not a federally protected class. It is protected in many states, including Massachusetts, but it's not protected at the federal level, so a homosexual NFL player wouldn't have this protection with every team for which he might play.
That's a good point. I was thinking mostly in terms of just straight-up sexual harassment, but that raises the question of whether you have to be a woman to be sexually harassed, and that's something about which I have no idea.