A former Chicago Blackhawks employee is suing the hockey team, accusing his supervisor of firing him for being gay.

Anthony Filomena, who served as the Blackhawks’ Manager of Public Relations from June, 2022 until May, 2024, filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming that he was terminated “one day after he complained to his supervisor that he was being criticized for participating in a media interview because of his sexual orientation.”

Filomena alleged that Jerry Ferguson, Executive Vice President of Brand and Marketing, violated Title VII and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission protections by treating him “differently than other similarly situated employees he supervised, discriminating against him because he was a homosexual male.”

Filomena’s filing stated that he had reported Ferguson to Human Resources for “hostile and aggressive actions,” as well as “getting the Brand and Marketing Department involved in projects that did not have league approval, or the right contracts in place for the Department to perform its job without getting in trouble or flagged by the National Hockey League.”

After being reported to HR, Filomena claimed that Ferguson retaliated by “increasing his hostile actions towards [Filomena], including yelling and berating [Filomena] in Mr. Ferguson’s office loud enough for others to hear, claiming he was not doing his job despite [Filomena] having evidence proving otherwise.”

The Blackhawks organization said in a statement to Fox News that Filomena “was terminated for cause due to multiple instances of misconduct over a period of six months,” adding, “He received multiple written communications outlining expectations including a formal, final written warning prior to his dismissal. His termination was solely due to continued misconduct and disregard for our company policies.”

Filomena disputed this in the filing, stating that he “performed his job duties in a satisfactory manner at all relevant times.” He cited a performance review that measured employees as either “On Track” or “Off Track” in several categories, in which he received “On Track” ratings in every category.

Filomena’s firing came one day after he participate in an Outsports interview that discussed his “experience as a gay man in the hockey industry” as well as “efforts to raise awareness of LGBTQ+ issues.” Filomena claimed he had received approval from Blackhawks Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Wirtz beforehand, and “was required to speak to the press constantly, and was quoted in a variety of news stories without incident” as Manager of Public Relations.

Despite this, Filomena was told after the interview was published that “the Department was very angry about it.” He “advised his supervisor he believed the criticism was because of Mr. Ferguson’s discrimination based on [his] sexual orientation,” and was terminated the next day.

Filomena is seeking damages, back pay with interest, and compensatory legal fees, with the filing asserting that he “has suffered and continues to suffer loss of employment, loss of income, loss of employee benefits and has suffered and continues to suffer mental anguish, emotional distress, humiliation, and loss of enjoyment of life.”