by Rex Wockner
International News Briefs
A policeman fired in Santiago, Chile in 2006 for being gay has filed suit at the Santiago Court of Appeals seeking reinstatement, back pay and $88,770 in damages.
Cesar Ricardo Contreras Segura's action targets the district attorney's office and is backed by the leading gay organization, Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation.
The suit says Contreras' dismissal violated the constitution's guarantee of equal treatment under the law and other constitutional rights.
"From 2006 to date, I have lived in family, emotional and economic hell because of my unjust and inhumane expulsion from the Civil Police, where I served for 15 years on a faultless path that police civil servants wanted to sully only because of my homosexuality," Contreras said.
