Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex. (Paul Edwards/Pool Photo via AP)

Veteran television news writer Hugh Heckman had been working for the PBS NewsHour Weekend out of WNET in New York for two years. Like many other workers in the news media, he was working on a story on the upcoming British royal wedding between Prince Henry and his then-fiancée Meghan Markle.

According to Heckman, he made an innocuous remark about the Duchess of Sussex—“not bad”—to a fellow male co-worker. The remark, he claims in a new federal lawsuit, was meant “to convey that the duchess possessed charm and beauty and was a suitable match for her fiancé, who has a reputation of possessing charm and handsome looks.”

A female co-worker sitting more than 20 feet away heard the remark and criticized Heckman for going against the recent training employees at the station had had regarding sexual harassment, according to the complaint. Another co-worker joined in, asking, “haven't you learned,” the complaint said.

The first co-worker made a complaint to Scott Davis, executive producer of WNET's NewsHour. According to the filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, WNET did not conduct an investigation into the situation, and Heckman was not given a chance to speak with anyone about the allegations.

Two days after the incident—despite what the plaintiff claims was Davis' previous efforts to keep Heckman as part of the program's team—Heckman says Davis contacted him and told him he was firing him over “this latest incident.”

Heckman says he informed Davis that the same two female employees had themselves behaved similarly, referring to a picture of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau whom they called “hot.” Yet no actions were taken against them, according to the complaint.

The complaint states that the back-office contractor that handles taxes and record-keeping for WNET claimed that Heckman was terminated largely because his services were no longer needed, but Heckman alleges he faced employment discrimination on the basis of his sex. The lawsuit was filed after he was granted a right to sue by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, after he filed a Title VII complaint.

In an emailed statement, WNET chief marketing and engagement officer Kellie Castruita Specter said Heckman was a part-time employee terminated in November 2017, and added that the station does not comment on pending litigation.

Heckman is represented by private attorney Jillian Weiss, the former executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund. As her Twitter biography notes, her practice largely focuses on protecting LGBTQ employees in the courts. Yet Weiss told the New York Law Journal that she was willing to represent clients “outside of the community when appropriate.”

Heckman's case is just such a situation, according to Weiss.

“Cases that do not merit the kind of weight that I see in the other cases that I bring dilute and diminish the force of many legitimate cases, and gives rise to those who oppose discrimination law to conclude all discrimination cases are frivolous,” Weiss said.

In Heckman's dismissal, Weiss took specific issue with the reasons given that appeared to run counter to the series of events. For Weiss, the kind of failure to investigate and provide legitimate reasons for removal ascribed to WNET in the complaint are of a kind she says she's familiar with. Her LGBTQ clients often allege they, too, find no proper investigation is done, forcing them to deal with the effects of discrimination.

Weiss acknowledged that Heckman faced other previous issues at WNET, but said that none of the other incidents were of a kind for which he claims he was discriminatorily fired.

“Because the employer has raised a defense that the reason for the dismissal was simply that his services were no longer needed, I wanted to make it clear that they did in fact invoke reasoning based on performance issues,” she said. “None of them merit this kind of action, and they are simply a post hoc justification.”

Heckman makes three claims, one under the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, and two under New York's human rights law.

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