Sarah Tressler was, until the end of March, a society reporter on the Houston Chronicle, the century-old Texas newspaper with a daily circulation of around 370,000 that rockets to nearly 1 million on Sundays.
Indeed, perhaps it is that body of bible-belt evangelical Christian readers who pick up the paper on their way home from church that is at the core of this tale.
Ms Tressler is now suing the paper – having instructed high-profile firebrand lawyer Gloria Allred – after having been sacked for failing to disclose her part-time, freelance occupation as… a stripper.
According to US media reports, Ms Tressler has lodged a complaint with the country’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission saying the paper’s ‘stated reason for my termination was pretextual, in that I answered the questions that were put to me truthfully
in connection with my application for employment. The true reason for my termination was discrimination on account of my gender’.
Ms Allred also weighed in, telling reporters that her client’s ‘work as a dancer is lawful and is not a crime. It does not, has not and will not affect her ability to perform her job as a journalist.’
The newspaper found itself in the sticking position of declining to comment.
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