Lesbian officer faced decades of terrible discrimination. She just won $2.6 million in court.

A six-person federal jury has awarded $2.6 million to a former Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) officer who faced anti-woman and anti-lesbian discrimination.

Stacey Arnold Yerkes worked as an OSHP officer from 1994 to 2018 and became an award-winning sergeant during her 25 years with the patrol. During that time, she said her direct supervisors harassed her and punished her more severely than her male, heterosexual coworkers.

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When Jebriel Teague complained about his co-workers’ use of gay slurs and the n-word, his supervisors told him to ignore it and then cut his hours.

On her first day at work, one straight male coworker allegedly told her, “There has only been one other female here before you, so try not to screw it up and make females look bad.” Only 8% of OSHP workers are female, according to WCMH.

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A supervisor allegedly put an envelope in her locker containing a picture of “two naked women, embraced in a sexual position, with one woman having a snake protruding from her [private area],” her lawsuit stated. One of her supervisors allegedly laughed and asked her later, “Did you get our envelope?”

One supervisor allegedly asked her if she wore underwear or ever went to a backroom together with her female friends to have sex. Another allegedly told her to move her “fat ass out of the way;” a manner of speaking that was never used on her male colleagues.

The supervisors would allegedly refer to various women as a “c**t,” “f**king c**t,” “b**ch,” “f**king b**ch,” and “broad,” and made comments like, “Women are only promoted here because they are women, not because of merit,” and, “The only reason women are allowed to perform lower than men is because they are women.”

They allegedly told her that her short hair looked “stupid” and “butch.” When she arrived one day in make-up and earrings, they allegedly commented, “What, is she trying to be a girl now?”

When she requested to take family leave for the birth of her son, her request was denied, allegedly because she had a wife and was told “it’s not the same” as a heterosexual request for family leave.

After denying her family leave request, Yerkes said supervisors began disciplining her more harshly than her male colleagues. They allegedly reprimanded her more harshly for arriving one minute late to work than they did a male coworker who arrived 26 minutes late.

Supervisors also allegedly disciplined her for leaving her patrol vehicle running and unattended in an OSHP post’s parking lot, for not wearing a hat during duty, and for not testifying at a court case while she was on sick leave — all things that her male coworkers did without facing any discipline.

When she complained to her direct supervisor in December 2017, he allegedly told his supervisors but took no additional actions. She then filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

A week after filing the complaint, a supervisor demanded that she show a tattoo on her arm that she kept hidden under a medical sleeve. She kept it hidden because “the OSHP’s tattoo policy requires employees to conceal their tattoos when they wear uniforms,” Yerkes’ lawsuit said.

After she refused to comply, a supervisor accused her of insubordination and later placed her on involuntary administrative leave for allegedly violating OSHP’s tattoo policy. Male coworkers with visible tattoos weren’t disciplined for violating the policy.

By February 2018, she was told she had to accept the following as a “last chance agreement” to continue working: a demotion, a department change, a surgical tattoo removal, and a withdrawal of her EEOC discrimination complaint. Instead, she chose to retire and sue the OSHP and her supervisors.

The jury awarded Yerkes over $1.3 million in compensatory damages, over $624,000 in back pay, and over $684,000 in lost pay, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The OSHP denied all of her allegations.