Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 29, 1995                   TAG: 9509290086
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: G.W. POINDEXTER ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND  NOTE: BELOW                                 LENGTH: Medium

HARASSMENT CASE A MAN-TO-MAN FIGHT

Lawyers for a Maryland man who accused his male supervisor of making unwelcome sexual comments and gestures toward him told a federal appeals court Thursday that sexual harassment should know no gender.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in the case after a federal judge in Baltimore refused a jury trial, saying sexual harassment law was intended only to prevent members of opposite sexes from harassing each other in the workplace.

The case is being closely watched in legal circles because it is one of a handful that involve male-against-male harassment and it is one of the first times a single-sex harassment case has been litigated this far, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland.

George E. Hopkins Jr., 46, in December 1993 sued Baltimore Gas & Electric Co., where he and supervisor Ira Swadow worked in a photo lab. Hopkins said Swadow made inappropriate comments to him, put a magnifying glass against his crotch and watched him in the bathroom. Hopkins' lawyer Lee Hoshall said his client was harassed because he is a man.``I believe the record shows stereotyping of Mr. Hopkins because he was male,'' Hoshall said. That stereotyping is enough to qualify as sexual harassment, he said.

The attorney for Baltimore Gas and Electric, J. Michael McGuire, acknowledged that Swadow's conduct on the job ``was juvenile'' and ``the record reflects that Swadow was crude to lots of people.''

But, he said, the behavior did not warrant a sexual harassment case.

``I have a real question whether this is actionable conduct at all,'' Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson said.

The judges gave no indication when they would rule.

Swadow has denied Hopkins' allegations, according to a story Thursday in The Baltimore Sun. Both Hopkins and Swadow lost their jobs in 1993 during a restructuring of the utility company.