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Con Edison accused of withdrawing Long Island woman’s $70,000 job offer because of lesbian art

Published: June 5th, 2017

Publication: Daily Mail

By Hannah Parry

  1. Samantha Chirichella had been due to start her $70,000 job at Con Ed

  2. But offer was withdrawn after the company found a ‘sexually explicit’ photo on her social media pages

  3. The Instagram picture featured a mirror image of two nude women with their lips pressed to each other’s naked breast

  4. Chirichella insists image is a legitimate piece of art from a friend’s exhibit

  5. She claims in her lawsuit against Con Ed that the company fired her because comments on the picture appear to suggest she is a lesbian 

A utilities company is accused of withdrawing a woman’s $70,000 a year job offer because of a sexy Instagram photo.

Samantha Chirichella, from Long Island, is suing Con Ed for rescinding the offer because the company considered the bare-breasted photo, from a friend’s art exhibit, too sexually explicit, the New York Daily News reports.

The 26 year-old had been due to start her new job as a staff investigator in Con Ed’s Legal Services department and a background check found she had ‘excellent references from prior employers,’ her suit says.

Samantha Chirichella (pictured on Facebook) from Long Island, is suing Con Ed for rescinding the offer because the company considered the bare-breasted photo, from a friend's art exhibit, too sexually explicit

Samantha Chirichella (pictured on Facebook) from Long Island, is suing Con Ed for rescinding the offer because the company considered the bare-breasted photo, from a friend’s art exhibit, too sexually explicit


But in March, the company pulled the offer after it came across the Instagram picture. The image features the mirror image of two nude woman, whose lips are pressed to each other’s naked breasts.

Chirichella insists in her lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, that the picture is not pornographic or explicit but is art.

‘The work was no more sexually explicit that the works of DaVinci, Titian or Michaelangelo, and less explicit that photos published in Sports Illustrated,’ Chirichella’s lawyer, Arthur Schwartz, says in court papers.

The photo, which was shown in a gallery as part of a larger art show, had been posted to Chirichella’s Instagram account three years ago.

The 26 year-old had been due to start her new job as a staff investigator in Con Ed's Legal Services department but the company pulled the offer in March after it came across the Instagram picture

She claims that the real reason Con Ed is withdrawing its offer is because of her ‘sexual orientation’ as comments on the Instagram picture appear to suggest she is a lesbian.

In a discussion under the picture, one commenter named Danielle had written: ‘It’d be hotter if it was us.’ To which Chirichella had replied; ‘hahah I agree:)’

‘What stood out to us most vividly about the Instagram page is not the Con Edison evaluator’s poor sense of artistic judgment, but the context,’ Schwartz, wrote in a letter to the utility giant.

Chirichella is now suing for unspecified damages on the grounds that she was ‘discriminated against on the basis of her sexual orientation.’

‘We are reviewing the matter now,’ a ConEd representative said.


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