Knott's Berry Farm Harassment Assistance

Any funds that have been donated will be reimbursed once Damion’s worker’s compensation claim is settled.

What will these donations be going towards?

CW: transphobia, deadnaming, misgendering, workplace harassment, retaliation.

Here is a TikTok and Reel that you can share to help get Damion's story out there.

For latest updates- please scroll towards the bottom.

I am writing on behalf of my partner Damion, who for the past 7 years, has worked for Cedar Fair, which owns the Southern California theme park, Knott's Berry Farm. In those 7 years he has witnessed and been subjected to homophobia, transphobia, harassment and a hostile working environment that has been allowed to thrive within the Security and HR Department. Here is a summary of what lead up to the events this year:

When Damion began his career at Knott's he presented as a Cisgender/Heterosexual female and was not out or living his life as a Transgender man. Beginning in 2017, he began taking the steps to live authentically as a man. He cut his hair short and started dressing more masculine. He began hormone therapy in 2018 and legally changed his name and gender in 2021.

Most of the incidents have involved "D," a Security Manager, and "F," a former Loss Prevention Associate. There were two other employees “G,” who was the Knott’s Berry Farm General Services Director, and "S," the Security Manager- but both were not employed at Knott’s at the time when the most recent occurrence took place. "M," was the Security Director at the time of these incidents.

The first major incident with D occurred in 2018, while Damion was working as a temporary Team Lead in Security at the Front Gate of Knott's Berry Farm. A guest was being belligerent to the associates while getting his bags checked. Damion stepped in and the guest called Damion homophobic and derogatory names. The manager D came to "handle" the situation. Despite being told by other associates what had happened, D apologized to the guest and removed Damion from the Front Gate. He told Damion that Damion was being too emotional and D felt that Damion wasn't ready to be in charge of the Front Gate.

Damion kept being the subject of D's scrutiny and had several more times where D tried to write him up or reprimand him for issues that were superfluous. When the environment would get too difficult for Damion to endure, he would sometimes have to call out or have trouble getting out of his car or leaving his house. He would dread going to work. D used this to his advantage and would write Damion up for attendance issues, but Damion never let it get bad, as he didn’t want to lose his job over D’s actions. Damion would overhear D and G talk about "crazy gay people" and "oh we have to be careful now not to hurt people's feelings because everyone is so sensitive." When Knott's Berry Farm underwent new training involving protected groups of people, D would make fun of it and say "how many genders are there now? Can someone identify as a b*tch?" When Damion formally informed Knott’s that he would like to be called Damion, and that he wanted to use he/him/his pronouns- D had S, another Security manager and "J.J," an HR associate who had a personal relationship with D, talk to Damion about using the Men’s locker room and that people would be uncomfortable with him using it but that if he wanted to use the Women’s locker room, he couldn’t be called a guy. They gave Damion no alternative to using the locker rooms and directly violated Cedar Fair's policy:

Damion told HR numerous times about some of these occurrences. He also fought the frivolous write-ups D would try to give him but D was never formally investigated. D used his relationship with J.J to avoid formal investigation. Damion had to fight every step to continue his career progression at Knott's Berry Farm.

There were other associates in the department who identified as Transgender or were openly Queer and they never lasted long. D usually found something to get them fired or they quit because they couldn't take the constant scrutiny or harassment. D would use the security cameras to watch associates without their knowledge, then would write them up for things he didn't write other associates up for.

In April 2021, both D and S moved Damion into the Loss Prevention Department without Damion’s consent. This was after another incident that occurred between D and Damion, which Damion was written up for and fought. D called Damion into his office and tried to pressure Damion to agree to make the move on his own, but Damion said he needed time to think about it, as it would technically be a step down in positions while simultaneously having more responsibility. At the time, Damion was a TA (temporary) Security Supervisor, and going to Loss Prevention would move him to a Team Lead position.

*This was an email that Damion sent to S on April 20, 2021*

Two days later, they publicly announced the move without Damion’s approval. Even though Damion was upset- it did allow him to get out from working directly under D.

It was then that Damion also began to experience direct issues with another associate, F. F was a Loss Prevention Associate. During Damion's time with F, he would say off color jokes/comments about Queer culture, while saying “hey I have family that’s gay, I don’t hate anyone.” When famous people who were part of the Queer community would come to Knott’s F, along with the other managers, would make underhanded comments. He also purposefully ignored or wouldn't follow Damion's requests, even though Damion was the person he reported to. He would come late to shifts, argue with Damion in front of others, among other things. Damion had a difficult time figuring out how to work with F but he tried. Whenever F was upset with Damion, Damion would experience more microaggressions at work. Other associates would inform Damion that F and D would talk about him and express confusion and disdain for “her trying to act like a guy.”

In addition to that, Damion was forced out of necessity to take on more of a manager role within Loss Prevention. He was the highest ranking employee in Loss Prevention so he made the schedules, drafted the training packets, collaborated and communicated with corporate officials, held meetings with other department managers. More and more he was working off the clock. He kept asking when Loss Prevention would get a manager or to officially be made manager of Loss Prevention in order to prevent any issues but was told that it wasn't necessary. When he reported it to HR, they told him to simply "not do the work.” During Damion's time in Loss Prevention, a new Security Director, "M" was brought on and "G" left. Damion was hopeful that some lasting changes would be made. He had several meetings with M and the new Director of HR "A" about the long history with D and the issues. Other associates were encouraged to speak to M and A.

All this came to a head this year. In March, Damion reported to HR that F had broken confidentiality regarding a private case HR and Loss Prevention had been investigating. After F was questioned by HR, another Loss Prevention associate, "E" informed Damion that F was misgendering and deadnaming Damion in front of E. Damion felt no choice but to report the incident.

*Here is a snippet from one of the text message exchanges.*

An excerpt from Damion's original statement:

*Security Director M advised F to "take some time off." F was NEVER suspended or formally investigated.*

Shortly after Damion reported F, E reported D separately regarding a different matter. Less than a month after those reports were made, both Damion and E were given letters by management and HR.

Here is the letter Damion was given:

*Damion was told that Cedar Fair corporate offices had made the decision to dissolve the Loss Prevention department and that in 7 days, Damion and all other Loss Prevention associates would be absorbed into Security.*

Here is the letter that the Associate E was given:

*As you can read, it says that if anything happens, to report it to their direct supervisor, which in this case would be D since Loss Prevention would no longer exist and Damion would not be the direct supervisor.*

Damion later found out that it was not corporate's decision to get rid of Loss Prevention. M told the VP of Knott's Berry Farm that he was making the decision to incorporate Loss Prevention into Security because "there's too much drama going on." It was a decision that was the direct result of Damion and E bringing formal complaints about F and D.

Please read the following excerpt taken from Damion's original statement:

*M and A knew that D had issues with Damion. They were more than aware of the situation Damion would be put in by having to work directly under D.*

After a little over a month of being back in security, Damion went to a Safety Department associate and asked what his options were regarding the situation he was in. He explained that the stress and anxiety were becoming too much and he was at his wit's end and that he didn't feel safe at work. The associate was very sympathetic and said that he could file for Worker's Compensation but that it would be a difficult process.

Please read the following:

*Damion tried to work back in Security. He was not given any of his Loss Prevention responsibilities back after the change, those were given to D to delegate as he saw fit. He was placed in Graveyard shifts even though that wasn't his availability and he told other Supervisors that he couldn't do Graveyard. Even though other Team Leads were allowed to have limited availability, Damion was told that he couldn't be moved to another shift because all Full Time Team Leads and Supervisors needed to have full open availability.*

Damion went through with filing for Worker's Compensation. In the original statement given to Knott's Berry Farm (Parts of which have been read earlier) Damion was very clear that it was both F and D combined that was causing his stress. Sedgwick was the company that Knott's Berry Farm used at the time for all Worker's Compensation cases. Although Damion filed in the beginning of June, Sedgwick was extremely delayed in responding to Damion's case.

*After several attempts and a case worker change, he was informed that Knott's Berry Farm was willing to settle and pay an undetermined sum if Damion would drop the case.*

Damion informed Sedgwick that he wanted help and to return to work. He wasn't looking for a settlement. Sedgwick had a third party company interview Damion and informed him that they were provisionally approving his claim. He got approved for 10 visits with a psychoanalyst. In their first visit, the psychologist said that they could recommend that Damion be put in a different position with the same pay and that Sedgwick and Knott's Berry Farm would have to follow his recommendations.

Damion felt optimistic about where his claim was headed. On barely his second visit, the psychologist told Damion that Sedgwick rescinded their authorization of Damion's treatment and that he should be getting mail soon. He also said that he was very sorry he couldn't help Damion further.

Pretty quickly after that meeting, Damion got letters several letters from Cedar Fair and attorneys representing the company, as well as emails from Knott's Berry Farm HR.

*This was from the VP of HR telling Damion that if he doesn't report to work or provide new doctor's notes, that Knott's Berry Farm will consider him voluntarily quitting.*

*J.J, the HR Associates who is very friendly with D, responded with this. She thought she was only responding to the HR VP. This is how Knott's Berry Farm treats employees who have been subjected to harassment.*

*Hours later, she finally figured out that she pressed "reply all" and tried to cover it up. This is a pretty poor attempt.*

*Cedar Fair threatening to stop some if not all of Damion's benefits if he doesn't pay them.*

Damion called Kaiser and several of the other insurance companies that he gets through Knott's Berry Farm and asked them if benefits would be stopped. Several of them said that in Worker's Compensation or Medical Leave situations, companies will continue to pay for benefits and, depending on the outcome, will backlog from checks to get payment or simply waive the extra fees. They found it highly unusual that Cedar Fair was demanding Damion pay them to continue benefits.

*Lastly Damion received a letter from Cedar Fair attorneys arguing that Cedar Fair acted in good faith since the issue was only with F and they acted properly. Remember Damion had named both F AND D in ALL his statements.*

The Cedar Fair attorney also compounded Damion's stress and frustration by misgendering Damion SEVERAL times throughout legal documents:

Please help Damion by sharing, donating, and demanding that Cedar Fair and Knott's Berry Farm be held accountable. He is also going to be looking into finding legal representation to fight this, so if anyone knows of any good teams please send them his way.

***UPDATE ONE***

Knott's Berry Farm sent a letter claiming that Damion had broken the law by posting videos on social media (to hear more about the letter they sent, you can watch this Reel. In this video, you can also see how Knott's misgendered Damion on legal documentation). The Knott's Berry Farm VP of HR A asked for a response, which Damion honored. A follow-up letter was sent to Knott's Berry Farm via email. Damion also requested an answer from A by a specified date. Although A expected Damion to answer, apparently representatives of Knott's Berry Farm don't need to honor legal requests. They still have not answered. His Worker's Compensation case is stalled at the moment. Right after the state Qualified Medical Examiner approved Damion's appeal and ordered the case to be re-opened, Knott's Berry Farm severed its business relationship with Sedgwick and has hired another company called Corvel.

Because of this delay, we still have no solution to pay the overdue balance on the mortgage or our other bills. We have exhausted all our savings and maxed out our credit cards. We have tried EVERYTHING. Damion has applied to numerous jobs and has even gotten some offers- but he isn't mentally ready to go back to work. He is having EXTREME anxiety going back into a work place environment due to what occurred at Knott's Berry Farm. He has applied for loans but his credit score has been decimated due to the unpaid mortgage and he hasn't been approved for any. He has even inquired on filing for bankruptcy but does not qualify because neither of us have any income coming in.

***UPDATE TWO***

We DESPERATELY need help. We will lose our home if we don't pay the mortgage due. The remaining balance was due January 1st but we have until January 16th before the foreclosure process moves forward.

***UPDATE THREE***

Knott's Berry Farm, in a highly unusual move, has decided to take Damion to court and fight the QME's decision to re-open the Worker's Compensation case. Our house now has an auction date and we have VERY little time to save our home.

A few examples of what other Associates (past and present) have said in regards to D and other managers.