A Los Angeles judge on Friday denied Lizzo‘s request to dismiss a serious harassment lawsuit filed by three of the singer’s former dancers, however, denying several allegations but allowing the case to move forward to trial.
The singer, singled out for harassment and discrimination, signaled last year that the case should be dismissed under California’s anti-SLAPP law, a special law that makes it easier to quickly end meritless lawsuits that threaten free speech (known as “strategic lawsuits against public participation”).
According to her legal representatives, her former dancers would be using the lawsuit to silence her. However, a decision by the judge in charge of the case, Mark H. Epstein, ruled that the law did not fit the allegations in the lawsuit. He dismissed some claims, including a particularly serious allegation that Lizzo made offensive comments about the weight of one of her dancers, but ruled that the rest of the case could go forward.
“It is dangerous for the court to intervene clumsily in constitutionally protected activities. But it is also dangerous to disregard allegations of discrimination or other forms of misconduct simply because they occur in a speech-related setting,” the judge said.
Serious Allegations Against Lizzo
In August last year, three former female dancers accused the singer and her company of creating a hostile work environment through a wide range of legal improprieties, including not only harassment but also religious and racial discrimination.
The plaintiffs claimed that the singer pressured them to attend a live s3x show at a venue in Amsterdam’s famous Red Light District called Bananenbar, and then pressured them to interact with the performers, including “eating bananas sticking out of the performers’ vaginas.” He also urges one of them to touch the breasts of one of those performers, the lawsuit details.
A Revenge?
Lizzo’s legal team defended her by claiming that the plaintiffs had “a vendetta” against the star because they had been reprimanded for “a pattern of misconduct and failure to do their jobs.”
Finally, the judge dismissed a harassment charge related to a nude photo shoot; a disability discrimination charge surrounding a dancer’s claim that she was fired from Lizzo’s tour after disclosing her mental health issues; and another charge claiming that Lizzo’s team intentionally interfered with the dancers’ job prospects.
This story was written in Spanish by Daniel Matute in Cultura Colectiva
