B. SCOTT SUING BET FOR $2.5 MILLION ALLEGING DISCRIMINATION BASED ON GENDER IDENTITY AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION

B. Scott— an openly gay transgender person — is suing BET, claiming the network humiliated him during the recent BET Awards by yanking him off the show because he was wearing women’s clothes.

Scott claims in his lawsuit — obtained by TMZ — he was hired to be the Style Stage Correspondent for the pre-show in June. At the beginning of the show, Scott claims he was wearing a flowing black tunic and black pants … which he says were approved by BET honchos.

Scott claims after the first segment of the pre-show, he was pulled backstage and told his garb wasn’t acceptable. Scott says he was ordered to “mute the makeup, pull back his hair” and remove the women’s wear … which included heels.

Scott says they forced him to change into men’s clothing [see below]. Nonetheless … Scott says he was still 86′d from the show and replaced by Adrienne Bailon.

Scott says he was humiliated and suffered damage to his reputation, claiming BET is guilty of discrimination based on gender identity as well as sexual orientation.

He wants $2.5 million minimum from BET. [TMZ]


BET was in the wrong for hiring B. Scott. I'm sure they did extensive research and knew what his persona was, therefore if they didn't agree with it, why hire him to begin with? I find it hard to believe that when they held a in-person meeting with him, that he wasn't wearing something similar to the attire he wore that evening.


As much as I'd love to see Black LGBT celebrities being more accepted by our community, lets face it--we are far behind our White counterparts when it comes to being accepted. Which is why I don't understand why BET decided to hire him.

Since this who debacle, Scott has garnered support from fans straight and gay, some people aren't so supportive of the celebrity blogger:

Reese
They didn't force B to do anything. If he didn't feel comfortable with the stipulations that BET set forth he should have opted out of the commentary gig.

Shellie  Reese
It's the same as if people have tattoos or several piercings. Companies CAN tell an employee what is acceptable and what isn't. It's up to the employee to say I'll stay or walk. Corporations don't bend their policies or rules to suit the employee. I'm pretty certain that there were several other transgendered person that would have donned anything just for the sake of having the spotlight on them for one evening. And to me what would have been more so called "discriminatory" would have been not to hire him at all for being transgendered.

Shellie  AnonNY
My thoughts exactly! I bet next year they'll stick to what they know. B or whatever his name is, really set his transgendered co-horts back instead of progressing. Common sense say you have to crawl before you walk. If he really wanted to promote his belief and culture, he would have started out less noticeable anyway just to get his foot in the door. Now, people are going to be more leery of hiring them for major broadcast shows b/c of fear of being sued for whatever reason. And that...will not disappoint me at all. Less explaining I have to do to children/family members.

Cece
Soooo he collected the check then he sues for humiliation, if he was THAT offended he should've just walk away. Stand for something or fall for anything its that simple.

Fresh45
That picture of this guy really disgusts and creeps me out. For a guy that was so humiliated, he sure seemed pretty happy when he was on the red carpet. Being on BET doing their biggest show of the year, gave him a lot of exposure, I don't see his point in suing them. I highly doubt them asking him to look more manly hurt his brand, because he still looked the same, he just didn't have on heels.

BETshouldaneverhiredthisfool
That's what BET gets for condoning this mess. Now he's out there being messy and acting a dang fool. BET the he/she aint wrapped too tight. I understand if he was sexually assaulted and somebody asked him to take off his clothes, but this fool mad because he had to change his shoes and isn....this fool sniffing bath salt.

Hanapana  
I understand she may have been discriminated against but 2.5M? Bitch please. Did it ruin your life? Did you lose a limb? Are you unable to work going forward? SMDH...

Ayesha 
BET is watched by millions of people, including kids. Why would he want to go on there confusing people like that? That is so horrible to want fame so much that you are willing to confuse the most vulnerable of our society.

[BOSSIP][TMZ]