Gay Missouri Officer Awarded $19M in Discrimination Lawsuit

An officer with the St. Louis County (MO) Police Department has been awarded $19 million in a discrimination lawsuit alleging that the agency passed him over for promotion because he is homosexual.

According to CBS News , Sergeant Keith Wildhaber filed the lawsuit against the agency in 2017 for an incident in 2014 in which he was speaking to a member of the St. Louis County Board of Police Commissioners about a promotion.

John Saracino—who was on the board at the time—allegedly told Wildhaber, "Tone down your gayness."

The discrimination suit went to trial last week and multiple officers, including Chief John Belmar, were named in the proceeding.