Ramsey Solutions settles discrimination lawsuit from former employee who came out as lesbian
Dave Ramsey’s company settled a lawsuit that alleged the Franklin corporation pressured an employee to resign after the employee came out as a lesbian.
The $76,900 settlement between Ramsey Solutions and Julie Anne Stamps concludes one of three federal lawsuits that former employees filed in recent years.
The lawsuits, in concert with other former employees speaking out, have raised questions about workplace practices and policies at the for-profit company headed by Ramsey, a finance guru, host of a nationally syndicated radio show and a conservative evangelical Christian figure.
Stamps lawsuit background: Ramsey Solutions faces federal lawsuit after termination of lesbian employee
A larger context: More former Ramsey Solutions employees are speaking out. Here's why.
A company with more than 1,000 employees, Ramsey Solutions produces educational on financial and business management.
"I think the settlement provides the opportunity for people to see that Ramsey knows they did something they shouldn’t have done," Stamps said in an interview.
Ramsey Solutions declined to comment.
Stamps’ original complaint in September described an institutional pattern of prioritizing traditional views on sexuality and gender, creating a culture that Stamps felt was discriminatory. For example, the suit alleged Ramsey “banned” pastors who have supported the LGBTQ community from speaking at required devotional meetings for employees.
Ramsey’s faith-based values influence company policies. The employee handbook says the company can discipline employees whose behavior is “not consistent with traditional Judeo-Christian values or teaching.”
Stamps was married to a man when she started working at Ramsey Solutions, though she later divorced after coming out as a lesbian.
Stamps came out to her supervisor at Ramsey Solutions in May 2020, leading to a series of interactions that “led Ms. Stamps to believe that in order for her to stay within its (Ramsey Solutions) employment, she would have to remain in the closet and refrain from sharing her true sexuality in the workplace,” Stamps’ complaint said.
Stamps eventually told her supervisor she would speak publicly about her sexuality, causing the supervisor to allegedly tell Stamps to tender a resignation and schedule an exit interview, according to the lawsuit. The company then allegedly moved up that departure date after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibited employment discrimination against LGBTQ people in the case of Bostock v. Clayton County, the lawsuit contends.
Ramsey Solutions denied Stamps’ allegations in court records.
Although Stamps considered the settlement as significant, "ultimately, it doesn’t accomplish what we wanted, which is an acknowledgement and a change within the company to stop discriminating against people for being people," she said in an interview.
The other two ongoing lawsuits in federal court allege the company discriminated against former employees. Caitlin O’Connor said the company fired her when managers learned she was pregnant and wasn’t married.
O'Connor lawsuit: Can you be fired over your sex life? Dave Ramsey thinks so.
Amos lawsuit: Radio host Dave Ramsey fired and 'mocked' employee over COVID precautions, federal lawsuit claims
Brad Amos alleges the company fired him over disagreements about company stances on COVID-19 guidelines. Ramsey in court has denied wrongdoing in both of these cases.
After Stamps, O’Connor and Amos sued the company, Ramsey has joked and made light of lawsuits against him on his show. “Some idiot will find a way to sue you,” he said in one episode in August.
Ramsey said in an October episode that his criteria for hiring a lawyer to fight a lawsuit against him is, “All I want to know is ‘Can you whip their butt? Are you mean and nasty? Will you absolutely, intellectually dominate the other side?’”
Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter @liamsadams.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Dave Ramsey's company settles lawsuit alleging LGBTQ discrimination
