In McMahon v Redwood TTM Limited, M complained that she had suffered discrimination because of her sexual orientation when she made the MD aware in the first week of her employment that she was gay and he asked her not to make it common knowledge as the owner (Mr Atherton) was old school. An ET upheld M’s claim finding that M did make the MD aware of her sexuality early into her employment, despite his protestations to the contrary and whilst not considering him to be homophobic in any way the ET also believed that he did suggest that she kept it under wraps as the ET felt that the reference to Mr Atherton being ‘old school’ had a ring of authenticity about it. In such circumstances M had been treated less favourably because of her sexual orientation by being asked not to disclose her sexuality when compared with a hypothetical person not attracted  to people of the same sex, as it would be inconceivable that such a person would have been asked to do so.

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