The Houston Rockets have been sued by a former gay food server who works at the Barclays Center and says the players chased him from the locker room, shouting slurs and thwarting his attempts to set up a pregame buffet.
The incident allegedly occurred last season, NBC Sports reported.
The server, Rasean Tate, then claimed he told his company what happened and was demoted.
The attorney in his suit says the Rockets and the company, Levy Restaurants, have been named — not the Barclays Center. He said, explaining the lawsuit to The New York Post: “[Mr. Tate] claims that he was setting up a buffet in the visiting Rockets locker room before a game on Feb. 22, 2013, when he was all but chased from the area because he was gay. When the plaintiff’s back was turned to defendant Rockets players, he began to hear laughter and taunting voices saying ’get this [expletive] out of here!’ and ’He’s trying to catch a sneaky-peeky!’ … These series of comments were repeated a number of times.”
Individual Rockets were not named in the suit, NBC Sports reported.
Mr. Tate alleged that he was prevented from working the locker room shortly after he complained and his hours were also cut, the media outlet reported. The defendants have not issued a response.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.