Fired minor league ump sues MLB, claiming he was sexually harassed by female colleague because he’s bisexual and faced discrimination from illegal quota system that promotes women and minorities

A fired minor league umpire sued Major League Baseball on Wednesday, alleging he was sexually harassed by a female umpire and discriminated against for being male and bisexual.

Brandon Cooper, an umpire who worked in the minor league Arizona Complex League last year, filed the lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan against MLB and PDL Blue Inc., an affiliated entity.

“Historically, MLB has had a homogeneous roster of umpires working in both the minor and major leagues,” the lawsuit states. ‘Specifically, to date there has never been a woman who has worked a (regular) season game played in the majors, and the majority of umpires remain Caucasian men. To try to solve the problem of racial and gender diversity, the defendants have implemented an illegal diversity quota that requires women to be promoted regardless of their merits.

Cooper’s lawsuit says he attended umpire training camps in 2022 and 2023 and was told in January 2023 by former umpire Ed Rapuano, now an umpire evaluator, and Darren Spagnardi, umpire development supervisor, that MLB had to include at least two women among 10 new hires.

Cooper says he was invited to spring training in 2023, put on a taxi squad and informed by Dusty Dellinger, senior manager of referee administration, that women and minority candidates had to be hired first. Cooper was assigned to the ACL in late March and said he received a high rating in June from former Major League umpire Jim Reynolds, now an umpire supervisor.

Cooper alleged that fellow referee Gina Quartararo, then in the ACL and now in the Florida State League, learned that Cooper was bisexual and mocked him and fellow referee Kevin Bruno with homophobic slurs and crude comments. Cooper said he notified Dellinger, then MLB told him he had to undergo sensitivity training and then he was accused of violating the minor leagues’ anti-discrimination and harassment policy.

Billy Bean, MLB’s senior vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, met with Cooper, according to the lawsuit, and informed the referee that Quartararo claimed she had been victimized as the only female referee in the ACL. Cooper said he told Bean there was video evidence of Quartararo’s alleged misconduct, which included physical action.

Cooper said he was skipped in the playoffs and fired in October, and claimed he was the only one fired among the 26 referees in the pool that was hired.

She alleged a hostile work environment and wrongful termination and/or retaliation due to gender and sexual orientation under New York State and City law. The MLB is headquartered in New York.

MLB declined to comment on pending litigation, according to spokesman Michael Teevan, and also said it was attempting to contact Quartararo to see if he wanted to comment. Quartararo was among nine women working as minor league umpires this season.

Jen Pawol this year became the first woman to umpire major league spring training since 2007 and is working in Triple-A, one level below the majors. She is in position to be a vacation/injury replacement call-up to the big leagues.