Bank accused of discriminating against gay Las Vegas broker

Grace Leong

Friday, Dec. 10, 1999 | 10:30 a.m.

Wells praised for gay-friendly policies

Wells Fargo is one of four big banks operating in Nevada that are listed in the gfn.com 50 -- a list of the most powerful gay-friendly publicly traded companies.

The list was issued last week by the Gay Financial Network, which runs an Internet site focusing on business, investing and news oriented toward gay and lesbian readers.

Topping the list is IBM, followed by AT&T and No. 3 Bank of America.

Other banks operating in Nevada on the list are Wells Fargo at No. 15, Washington Mutual at No. 28 and U.S. Bancorp at No. 39.

B of A and Wells Fargo were praised for personnel policies forbidding discrimination against workers based on sexual orientation and for providing benefits to the partners of gay employees.

A Las Vegas gay man and his straight business partner sued their former employer, Wells Fargo Bank, alleging they were forced to resign after the defendant allegedly discriminated against them because of the gay man's sexual orientation.

Also sued were Wells Fargo Securities Inc., two senior officers and its subsidiary Norwest Investment Services.

Wells Fargo & Co. and Norwest Corp., which completed their merger on March 31, retained Wells' name.

In a U.S. District Court suit, plaintiffs Geoffery A. Vanderpal and Michael Gordon accused Ralph Pierro, their former supervisor and regional sales manager of Wells Fargo Securities, of defamation, and of allegedly sabotaging their training and employment opportunities by failing to provide the working conditions and support promised in their employment agreement. The two men were hired on Feb. 15 as Norwest securities sales representatives and left on June 10.

While the lawsuit doesn't mention violations of Nevada Assembly Bill 311 -- a new Nevada law prohibiting discrimination against gays in employment -- it alleged defamation and violations of the plaintiffs' employment contracts and violations of Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Title VII prohibits an employer from discriminating against any individual with respect to his "compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment," and from "limiting, segregating or classifying" any employee in any way that would deprive the individual of opportunities because of "the individual's race, color, religion, sex or national origin."

The suit said Pierro allegedly violated Norwest's employment policies and Wells Fargo's Team Members Handbook rules on sexual harassment when he allegedly referred to gays as "queers" and made derogatory remarks concerning homosexual sex acts.

Norwest's Employment Policies Handbook said the bank is "committed to the principles of Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action" and its "success depends on talented people without regard to ... sexual orientation."

The handbook describes offensive workplace behavior as "conduct ... (including) actions by any supervisor ... which adversely affects a team member's ... employment, wages or other working conditions; and verbal abuse such as ... sexual jokes or slurs."

Wells Fargo's handbook describes examples of sexual harrassment as "derogatory comments; slurs, jokes or epithets of a sexual nature ... and sexually degrading words used to describe an individual."

The plaintiffs said Pierro allegedly failed to provide any support for their careers and sabotaged their opportunities to earn commissions after Vanderpal told Pierro he was engaged in a homosexual relationship with his partner -- not Gordon, who is not gay.

Wells Fargo denied comment on the allegations.