San Francisco Chronicle photo
San Franciscan Roberto Hernandez just won $270,000 in a lawsuit against Univision, which outed him on live national radio in 2002. Univision did, um, screw Hernandez up the butt by invading his privacy, but Hernandez won for his claim of emotional distress, which only reinforces the widespread cultural belief that we homosexuals are inherently defective and thus are to be ashamed of ourselves. (And besides, if you're a man living in San Francisco, isn't it just assumed that you're gay? And in the picture of him above, Hernandez doesn't look like the most masculine man on the planet to me. Before Univision announced it, was there really anyone who didn't already know that he is gay?)
Roberto Hernandez is GAY
(and I don't think that he can sue me [and win])
California is the most litigious state in the nation. Part of the reason for this, of course, is that California is the most populous state of the nation. And then there are things like this (from the San Francisco Chronicle):
A San Francisco man who was outed as gay on a national Spanish-language radio show and says his life was devastated as a result will receive $270,000 from Univision Radio, an arbitrator in the case has ruled.
Univision Radio, the largest Spanish-language radio broadcaster in the United States, also agreed Friday to sensitivity training for employees in its five biggest markets, said Monica Taher, a media director for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. That action was not part of the arbitration, but it shows the impact of 45-year-old Roberto Hernandez's stand against insensitivity to gays and lesbians, which is rampant in Spanish-language media, Taher said.
"This is the first time where we see a case in which the victim decides to take the law into his hands and sues a mega-giant company such as Univision, " Taher said. "It sets a precedent for other LGBT people that they can do something about cases like this."
A Univision Radio representative could not be reached to confirm the sensitivity training.
Hernandez was driving to work in October 2002 when he received a phone call from a man who said that his name was Juan and that he met Hernandez at a San Francisco gay bar. The caller gave Hernandez his phone number and then announced that the conversation was being broadcast live on the "Raul Brindis and Pepito Show," based in Houston.
Hernandez worked for the local station that broadcasted the show, KSOL, and sold advertising for the program. He said he was disappointed with the outcome and was so depressed that he could no longer work.
"It's a nightmare," Hernandez said. "How do you live with such an embarrassment in your life? How do you live when someone makes your life so insignificant? Any kind of help or support would be welcome to my life, because I need it at this moment."
Hernandez had been discreet about disclosing his sexual orientation before the incident, not even telling his family.
Arbitrator Rebecca Westerfield found that Hernandez had suffered emotional distress but dismissed claims of workplace sexual harassment and that Hernandez had no choice but to quit his job and thus was owed workers' compensation. She did not rule on whether his right to privacy was violated.
Hernandez was awarded $250,000 and nearly $20,000 in economic damages because of the emotional distress that led to seven months of unemployment after quitting his job. He was awarded no punitive damages.
Hernandez said he was most disappointed that Brindis was not punished for his homophobic prank.
The arbitration settlement states Brindis was "warned and never repeated the conduct," though Hernandez's attorneys say the host was only disciplined over broadcasting conversations without consent.
Hernandez's colleague who gave Brindis the cell phone number was fired.
Attorneys for Univision and Hispanic Broadcasting Corp., which owned the station at the time, would not comment.
Wow. Now, Hernandez does not deny his homosexuality, so he could not have sued Univision for defamation and won (by definition, defamation is making a false claim about someone).
Undoubtedly, the radio station showed incredibly poor judgment in outing Hernandez. Was outing him on the air supposed to be funny? Perhaps on a program called the "Raul Brindis and Pepito Show," outing a private, non-famous individual on live national radio indeed is considered to constitute humor. (Perhaps it's a cultural thing, like how those Mexican postage stamps with a black cartoon character who looks more like a monkey than a human being are widely considered normal and inoffensive in Mexico.)
All of us, when we receive a telephone call, have the right to the reasonable expectation that the phone conversation is not, unbeknownst to us, being broadcast on live fucking radio. So I would think that Hernandez had a valid invasion of privacy claim against Univision, and I'm surprised that the arbitrator didn't go there.
I have no reason to doubt that Hernandez, who apparently was a closet case until his outing (many Latinos, even many of those who are big ol' blips on the gaydar, are closet cases because of the whole machismo thing), experienced at least some amount of emotional distress as the result of his outing.
My Black's Law Dictionary defines "intentional infliction of emotional distress" as "the tort of intentionally or recklessly causing another person severe emotional distress through one's extreme or outrageous acts." Intent is very difficult to prove, so I guess it's good that "or recklessly" is part of that definition, because while the idiots at the radio station might not have intentionally caused Hernandez emotional distress, certainly their acts were reckless, outrageous and stupid. They acted at least neglectfully if not maliciously.
But what bothers me about this news story is that, apparently, being homosexual is so shameful -- to use Hernandez's words, "such an embarrassment" -- that a gay man just won $270,000 for emotional distress because he was outed. The $270,000 awarded to Roberto Hernandez reinforces the widespread cultural belief that to be gay is to be defective and thus is something to feel ashamed of.
I hope that Hernandez buys himself some awfully nice things with his $270,000.
Maybe he'll donate some of it to the gay and lesbian community that he has just harmed. (Yeah, right.)
1:15:04 PM 
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