Banker says he was fired for being gay

LONDON, March 8 (UPI) -- A British investment banker claims that he was fired because he was too open about his homosexuality.

Peter Lewis is seeking $8.7 million in damages from HSBC, The Independent reported. Lewis was aggressively recruited to a million-pound-a-year job as Global Head of Equities Trading and then fired months later on charges of sexual harassment.

The case is being heard by an employment tribunal.

Lewis says that allegations that he harassed two men in the company gym are bogus, that the first incident involved a stranger who came up to him in the locker room, using crude language. He said he later heard that the man had been describing him as "a nonce," using a slang term for homosexual.

"I believe that if I was a heterosexual man these allegations would have received the ridicule that they deserve," he said.

Not long after he was hired, Lewis said, he began getting abusive telephone calls at home.

HSBC, which has been listed as a gay-friendly company, denies Lewis's claims.