English v Sanderson Blinds Ltd [2008] EWCA Civ 1421 is a UK labour law case on the question of whether a person can claim discrimination for sexuality without being (or without revealing that one is) actually gay.
Stephen English, who lived in Brighton, was a heterosexual married man with three children who worked for Thomas Sanderson Ltd between 1996 and August 2005, when he left voluntarily.
He went to an Employment Tribunal, claiming harassment in the workplace under section 5 of the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003, alleging that he had been the subject of homophobic mockery, but the tribunal rejected his claim because he admitted that none of his colleagues had actually thought he was gay.
The calculated insult to his dignity, which depended not at all on his actual sexuality, and the consequently intolerable working environment were sufficient to bring his case both within Regulation 5 and within the 1976 Directive.
The incessant mockery ("banter" trivialises it) created a degrading and hostile working environment, and it did so on grounds of sexual orientation.