Target Corporation sexual orientation harrasment gone unchecked for years has ruined my life Joplin Missouri

i have worked for target for 5 years. after the first year of working there, i was harrased one day at lunch, called a homo and a f****t over and over again by one male co-worker. i took my claim to the hr leader, and he did nothing, saying it was not meant "in a mean or cruel way".

after this incident, the worker went around, complaining to everybody how i tried to get him fired, and what words he used. everybody in the store started calling me these names, and seeing as how my hr did nothing against him, why would i even go to him about anything else? at the time i was supporting myself, my mother, and my sister on this minimum wage job, and could do nothing to lose it, seeing as how it was my family's only source of income.

for the past four years, the employees go behind my back and tell all new people that i am secretly gay, and not to tell me because i'll get upset over it. i have, and have always been straight. until recently i did not know that this was called sexual orientation harrasment, something that target corporation supposedly does not condone.

team leaders have told my teammates that i am gay. other teammates have made sexual gestures towards me infront of superiors, and nothing is done. my store is run by religious bigots, and southern "good ol boys", and calling the corporate hotline will do nothing, as they allow this little kingdom to do whatever it wants.

when i got married two years ago, to my girlfriend of 5 years, everyone in the store started the rumor that she didn't exist, that she was a fragment of my imagination. when more and more people saw her shopping in the store with me, then the rumor changed to "he got married so nobody would think he's gay".

this rumor after 5 years has spread all over town, to ex-girlfriends, and even to my family members. if this was investigated, i know lists of people who work there currently, and who used to work there, who would corroborate my story(although in the case of currently working employees, they would have to have the threat of lie detectors, because most of the people who work at my store will lie straight to your face).

this may seem outrageous in the year 2008, but if you haven't lived in joplin, mo, you don't know how hundreds of years they live in the past. these people(and i use that term loosely) get away with whatever they think they can. i'm currently looking for another job, now that i can afford to, but have been trying to find if there's anything i can do about the years of psychological and emotional abuse i have suffered at this hell hole.

to think that i'm the one that's leaving, and all the people who have done this have gotten promoted, or will still keep their jobs, turns my stomach.

Owen
Baxter Springs, Kansas
U.S.A.