The First Amendment has recently cost a transgender's discomfort. The Hollywood Reporter said that B. Scott, who was born Brandon Sessoms, lost a court battle against Networks and its parent company Viacom over an alleged incident that had forced him to go back to the gender he was born with.
According to the complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court, he was hired as a style correspondent for the pre-show of the 2013 BET Awards. Scott had shown up in an appearance that his supervisors didn't approve. He claimed he was yanked literally backstage, asked to reduce his makeup, pull his hair back, take off his clothing. Scott said that such action equated to changing his gender identity.
THR said that Scott attempted to show the court that there was discrimination via evidence. Internal emails from BET executives reportedly emerged during discovery in the case, with one coming from BET Music programming president Stephen Hill, which read, "I don't want 'looking like a woman B Scott.' I want tempered B Scott."
Viacom brought an anti-SLAPP motion as a reaction to Scott's lawsuit and petitioned for the judge to strike down the complaint under the First Amendment. Los Angeles Superior Court judge Yvette Palazuelos had granted Viacom's motion, THR said.
In a tentative ruling that was further adopted after a hearing on Thursday, Palazuelos said, "The same logic applies, as Defendants allegedly made decisions about the creative vision of the television program. If casting decisions are protected speech, then logic dictates that decisions about wardrobe, style, and whether to appear with or without a co-host, also fall within the protection of the First Amendment as these decisions impact 'the end product marketed to the public.'"
THR said that even itf Scott felt his own freedom of expression was taken illegally by Viacom through force, the plaintiff was at that time, required to perform under the TV network's free speech as Viacom had asked a government body to redress injury.
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