Gay Llama Farmer Fired for Sexual Orientation; Now His Entire Farm is in Danger


 
 23 Feb 2013   Awareness, Heartbreaking

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After working as a public school teacher for fifteen years, Kevin McCaffery retired to run his 18-acre farm full-time. The sanctuary, which is made up of prize-winning llamas, and many cats, dogs, pigs, donkeys and other animals, many of whom came into Kevin’s care as strays. After working on his farm for some time, Kevin decided to go back to work as a director of a day car in Ashland, Kentucky. Unfortunately, because Kevin is gay, many of his coworkers teased him ruthlessly, calling him ‘twinkle-toes’ and ‘queer.’ Which, as a side note, what a FANTASTIC example to be setting for the youngsters of Ashland.

After the mocking and ridicule went on for some time, Kevin was forced to resign. He took his case to court, and filed it was wrongful termination. Unfortunately and sadly unsurprisingly, Kentucky seems to be years behind when it comes to employment equality because they do not have a law protecting the LGBT community in the workplace and employers can fire people based purely on their sexual orientation.

One of Kevin’s friends on Facebook reached out to Buzzfeed for help after Kevin responded to a concerned message with the following:

… things have hit an all time low. The judge threw my case out of the court, stated that he knew that I had been done wrong by my employer but in the great state of Ky. anyone can call you queer and twinkle toes and fire you and that there are no laws to protect you. My unemployment has run out and now I am on food stamps just to have something to eat. I had to change my feed for my animals to a cheaper kind just so that I can provide for them. I am at the mercy of everyone to help feed them anymore. I had to go apply for assistance to try to pay my electric bill today. I have been applying for jobs everywhere. I did get a response from a new preschool/daycare in Lexington. I hope and pray that it works out. I don’t know how I will travel to Lexington everyday and keep up with the farm work, but I’ll cross that bridge if it happens. Sorry to sound so negitive but right now it’s hard to keep my head up anymore. Debbie I appreciate all that you have done to try to help, it means a lot. Love you, Kevin.

Buzzfeed promptly visited his farm and took pictures of all of his animals to raise awareness about his plight. As of right now, no campaigns have been set up, but we’ll keep everyone updated if something is started. Hopefully this exposure will, primarily, get Kevin back to work as well as begin putting pressure on Kentucky to reform the fairness and equality in their employment laws.

You can visit Buzzfeed to see the rest of the photos.

 

via buzzfeed

 



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  • LlamaHomefry

    Not cool, Kentucky. :( Is there a fund for this guy yet?

  • Missin’ Mississippi

    Wrong on every level! Shame on you Kentucky!

  • http://dailyoftheday.com/ Lascivious Lass

    That Buzzfeed article led me to this awesome LGBT blog: http://borngaybornthisway.blogspot.com/

  • TruuuV

    Kentucky – They can go suck a dick.

  • http://electricreader.blogspot.com/ Moosh: Hat Enthusiast

    In before jokes about gay llamas.

    Seriously though, this is stupid.

  • cdn_bakun

    If he retired from being a school teacher, shouldn’t he be collecting a pension? And seriously, he owns an 18-acre farm with “51 llamas and more than 300 animals total” and collects food stamps? Sell off a couple acres or a llama or three!!
    Lots of people fall on hard times due to a myriad of circumstances; granted, discrimination is never cool. However, I can name you a dozen people who lost their jobs because someone higher up had an axe to grind OR had a friend/relative who needed a job. Or both.

    But I’m really curious about where his pension money is, why he thought retiring from his original job was a good plan, and why I should feel sorry for him now that he owns more property, equipment, and animals that I could ever dream of.

    • That One

      Assuming he has a llama farm and not a farm with a bunch of llama pets, selling his llamas would be stupid. That is like telling a farmer to sell his seeds if he wants to have enough money to make it to harvest. No seeds, less seeds = no harvest, less harvest. Fewer llamas = less money from wool and offspring.

      You are also assuming that his land is worth a large amount. This is in Kentucky, the middle of nowhere. You can’t just sell of a couple of acres unless there is someone actively looking to do something with that specific site.

      Your post really seems analogous to telling a semi truck driver who can’t get work to sell a couple of his wheels, and then being bitter because he still has a vehicle that is bigger than your’s.

      • cdn_bakun

        That’s a particularly poor analogy. His farm is no less an active farm with fewer animals or fewer acres but a semi truck is useless without wheels. And as to your seeds example, if he scales back his operation to one that is economically feasible (selling animals brings in working capital to feed the remaining stock) he can rebuild his flock in a few years.

        He retired from one job by his own choice to run a farm that doesn’t pay for itself but won’t sell off animals to pay bills, instead choosing to accumulate livestock that he can’t afford to feed. Eventually, he takes on a second job but quits that one, too, because he doesn’t like the treatment and then sues for wrongful dismissal…when he quit? The article says “resign”, he says “fire” so that part is a bit unclear.

        In Canada, in most cases you can’t collect employment insurance if you quit OR get fired, nor can you get welfare if you own property. He’s doing both.
        I’m not bitter, I just think he makes poor choices and while I agree that getting mistreated or discriminated against at work is awful, he’s put himself in some of this mess.

      • Adam Devine

        Stating that all of Kentucky is in the middle of nowhere obviously lends credence to your arguments. Lend us some more of your blatantly ill-informed and stereotypically driven wisdom.

        • CalGore

          Generalizing all of kentucky. Like the top comments here, as well as the dotd write up? Sorry..thats one thing i dont much care for. A few people do something wrong and an entire state gets labeled?

          edit: agree with you btw, comment was not at you.

    • Moddy

      +1 on this. I feel sympathy for his plight and wish he could sue the shit out of them. That said … was this the only job in a 30 mile radius? It’s either work at a day care (that pays shit), win a lawsuit, or live on welfare and food stamps? Really, those are the only 3 options available?

    • CalGore

      Dont know why you got downvoted. A lot of it doesnt really make much sense. Was he fired or did he resign? He was director of the daycare so how did his coworkers fire him? He was comfortable enough retiring after only 15 years to run a llama farm? Looking at llama farms people say the only way you can make any money is by breeding them pretty much, which he has never sold a one so i dont know how he was supporting himself before.

      It sounds like he was bullied out, which is sad and completely ridiculous by itself ….ESPECIALLY everyone being grown adults. But it does sound like he owns a bit of his current situation.

      Sounds like a better analogy would be a truck driver selling his truck and picking up an expensive hobby.

  • Slartibartfatsdomino

    Sigh. This is half my extended family. Slartibartfatsdomino apologizes for all his ignorant cousins.

    • dailyoftheday

      I still read your name as Slartsbartsfartsdominos.

      -KT

      • Slartibartfatsdomino

        and…
        that’s…
        ok.

      • TruuuV

        Every. Single. Time.

        • dailyoftheday

          He may try to be Slartibartfatsdomino but he’ll always be Slartsbartsfartsdominos to me.

          I just like typing it.

          -KT

          • TruuuV

            I don’t even read the domino bit, just “Slartiblartfarts”.

            • http://dailyoftheday.com/ Lascivious Lass

              I read it as: Slartisbarts

  • Adam Devine

    Many states have laws that say you give up the right to a wrongful termination claim if you resign. Also, like it or not, sexual orientation is not a protected class under the law in many states (or under federal law), because they are not considered an insular minority that is unable to effect the political process. In fact, only 17 states actually consider it a protected class like race, color, religion, or national origin. So saying that they are years behind, and insinuating that it is an inherent trait of the state, is ill-informed at best.

    If this guy’s story is true obviously he was subject to despicable behavior. But something is making my BS detector go off here. And I object to him using food stamps because he needs to have money to run his farm. If he was a schoolteacher and decided to retire to take on a venture that is non-self supporting, then he made a bad business decision, and should answer for it.

  • Xyz

    http://www.gofundme.com/LLANannyFarmsKY#description seems to be the fund set up for him – commenters over at buzzfeed got it going