A former Los Angeles County healthcare worker is suing her ex-employer and two staffing agencies, alleging that a co-worker told her, “you are going to go to hell for being a lesbian,” and that the plaintiff was eventually fired in 2025 for complaining about the homophobic remarks.
Sheila Cruz’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit allegations include discrimination, harassment, whistleblower retaliation, wrongful termination and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She seeks unspecified damages as well as punitive damages against the staffing agencies.
A county Dept. of Health Services representative said there would be no comment on personnel matters or pending litigation.
Cruz was hired in September 2024 as an X-ray technologist, worked an early morning shift and had no initial job performance issues, the suit filed April 15 states. Upon learning the next month that Cruz is gay, a patient-intake coordinator began making “repeated, disparaging, religiously-framed comments about her sexual orientation,” including telling her, “you are going to go to hell for being a lesbian” and “you should change yourself and be with a man if you want to go to heaven, otherwise you are going to hell,” the suit alleges.
After Cruz complained, a supervisor asked her to write a statement about what happened, but also warned the plaintiff that she was just a temporary employee and that the alleged harasser was a member of a union, the suit states. Feeling pressured, Cruz wrote a limited statement in which she did not recall any discriminatory statements by the co-worker after all, according to the complaint.
In November 2024, a female radiographer falsely accused Cruz of trying to flirt with her and a department manager said he may have to fire the plaintiff, the suit states. Cruz reported the manager’s alleged warning to human resources and said she believed it was connected to her reporting the alleged homophobic comments by Cruz’s co-worker, the suit states.
Retaliation followed and Cruz was given a late afternoon-evening shift change over her objections in December 2024 and then terminated two months later, according to the suit, which further states that Cruz was only told that she lost her job due to “discourtesy.”
Cruz has suffered lost income and emotional distress since her termination, the suit states.