White man faced discrimination by SC hospital after anti-BLM, vax mandate views, suit says
A white man older than 40 faced racial, gender and age discrimination and wrongful termination from his job as a nurse at Grand Strand Medical Center, according to a recent lawsuit filed in Horry County.
Thomas Frazier, hired at the hospital in 2015, was an exemplary employee on his way to a potential promotion and transfer to Houston when he first became a target for discrimination around June 2021, he alleges.
Grand Strand Health responded in a statement that it strongly disagrees with the allegations and plans to defend itself through the legal process.
“Grand Strand Health is dedicated to creating a welcoming environment and a culture of respect and inclusion,” a spokesperson wrote. “We believe this individual was terminated appropriately.”
In 2021, Frazier responded to an anonymous company survey by expressing concerns that the hospital’s ownership, HCA Healthcare, had donated to Black Lives Matter and created a Diversity, Inclusion and Equity committee with no heterosexual, white men other than those in senior leadership, the suit states.
“I expressed how it made me feel discriminated against because of the lack of true diversity and it being more like trying to force a perception that true diversity means not including white men,” Frazier later wrote in a complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Despite believing that the comments were submitted anonymously, Frazier was called into meetings with hospital leaders and uncomfortably forced to defend his position, according to the lawsuit.
Tensions rose between Frazier and hospital leaders again in November 2021 after he posted a message on his LinkedIn page opposing a federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate for hospital workers — which has since been rescinded — that administrators saw and resulted in disciplinary action for violating the company’s social media policy, the complaint states.
Frazier was ultimately fired Dec. 6, 2021 shortly after a conversation with a coworker about a transgender person that company officials considered disparaging remarks toward the LGBTQ+ community, he alleges. Shortly after his termination, hospital security received a notice to “Be On The Lookout” for Frazier, who allegedly threatened company leaders — an allegation he denies, the complaint notes.
Other hospital employees including younger, less experienced women, who committed similar or worse infractions, were treated more favorably and allowed to keep their jobs, Frazier alleged.
An attorney representing Frazier did not respond to a request for an interview. The lawsuit does not list his exact age, just noting he’s older than 40. He’s also a U.S. Army veteran and hearing impaired, according to the complaint.
There is recent proof that an older white man can win an employee discrimination lawsuit against a healthcare provider.
A federal jury in Charlotte awarded $10 million in punitive damages in 2021 to the former vice president of marketing at Novant Health after he claimed to be fired because he was a white man when the company attempted to diversify its leadership, according to The Charlotte Observer.
A judge last year did reduce the award to $300,000 due to a federal law capping damages in workplace discrimination cases, but the hospital chain was still ordered to pay him nearly $4 million in lost wages, the Observer reported.
