The ex-chief of Atlanta’s fire department filed a federal complaint Wednesday alleging that the city discriminated against him when he was dismissed for publishing a book that contained offensive comments on homosexuality.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that former fire Chief Kelvin Cochran filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The attorney backing Cochran’s legal effort is allied with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a nonprofit that advocates for freedom to express one’s faith, according to the newspaper.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed (D) fired Cochran earlier this month, following a 30-day suspension while the city investigated the ex-chief’s self-published book “Who Told You That You Are Naked?”
Reed stressed at the time that he didn’t terminate Cochran for his religious beliefs, but because Cochran published the book without his permission and because its passages on homosexuality — including comparing it to a “perversion” like bestiality — could make the city vulnerable to discrimination complaints.
The mayor was unfazed by the complaint on Thursday.
“He can get all of the lawyers he wants so that he can continue to have publicity and sell books, but he’s going to lose the legal case,” Reed told local TV station WAGA. “What is not disputed is he never communicated with me, the chief executive officer, prior to the publication of the book. It’s clearly out of bounds.”
Evangelicals and conservatives, including RedState editor Erick Erickson, have taken up Cochran’s cause. Erickson slammed Cochran’s dismissal in a blog post and on his radio show, seizing on the deadly terror attacks earlier this month in Paris to brand gay activists as “terrorists.”
