{"id":63594,"date":"2026-03-11T14:29:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T18:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=63594"},"modified":"2026-03-11T14:29:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T18:29:49","slug":"a-former-firefighter-filed-the-lawsuit-against-polk-county-in-u-s-court-for-floridas-middle-district-in-tampa-on-march-28-court-records-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/11\/a-former-firefighter-filed-the-lawsuit-against-polk-county-in-u-s-court-for-floridas-middle-district-in-tampa-on-march-28-court-records-show\/","title":{"rendered":"A\u00a0former firefighter filed\u00a0the lawsuit\u00a0against\u00a0Polk County in U.S. court for Florida&#8217;s Middle District in Tampa\u00a0on\u00a0March 28,\u00a0court records show.\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A&nbsp;former firefighter filed&nbsp;the lawsuit&nbsp;against&nbsp;Polk County in U.S. court for Florida&#8217;s Middle District in Tampa&nbsp;on&nbsp;March 28,&nbsp;court records show.&nbsp;A judge has scheduled a three-day jury trial for Nov. 2.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img data-dominant-color=\"8c8986\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #8c8986;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/bf6e2c9e-507a-4b44-849c-66dd99a3e160-1024x576.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-63595 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/bf6e2c9e-507a-4b44-849c-66dd99a3e160-1024x576.webp 1024w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/bf6e2c9e-507a-4b44-849c-66dd99a3e160-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/bf6e2c9e-507a-4b44-849c-66dd99a3e160-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/bf6e2c9e-507a-4b44-849c-66dd99a3e160-1536x864.webp 1536w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/bf6e2c9e-507a-4b44-849c-66dd99a3e160.webp 1733w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dustin Willis is claiming the county discriminated against the firefighter because of gender identity after a job offer to return to the department was withdrawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What the lawsuit alleges<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The firefighter says <strong>Polk County Fire Rescue initially offered them a job<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>According to the lawsuit, <strong>the county later rescinded (took back) that job offer<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The plaintiff claims the decision was <strong>based on their gender identity as a transgender person<\/strong>, which they argue violates federal civil-rights protections.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Legal claims<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The civil lawsuit reportedly alleges violations such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Employment discrimination based on sex\/gender identity<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Violation of federal civil-rights law<\/strong> (generally tied to Title VII protections)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The firefighter is seeking remedies that may include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Being rehired<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Compensation for lost wages<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Other damages related to discrimination<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Status of the case<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The lawsuit has been <strong>filed in federal court<\/strong> but is still in early stages.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Polk County officials have not publicly responded in detail<\/strong> yet because the case is pending litigation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you want, I can also explain:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Who the firefighter is and their background<\/strong>, or<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Why gender-identity discrimination cases often rely on a 2020 Supreme Court ruling.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A&nbsp;former firefighter filed&nbsp;the lawsuit&nbsp;against&nbsp;Polk County in U.S. court for Florida&#8217;s Middle District in Tampa&nbsp;on&nbsp;March 28,&nbsp;court records show.&nbsp;A judge has scheduled a three-day jury trial for Nov. 2. Dustin Willis is&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"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.aEcbSqSdmT3DA139beaPo7Zjs5kqVv7pbSVfWav9pN0MQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[14014,14015],"class_list":["post-63594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-a-former-firefighter-filed-the-lawsuit-against-polk-county-in-u-s-court-for-floridas-middle-district-in-tampa-on-march-28","tag-court-records-show"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63596,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63594\/revisions\/63596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}