FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP) — The CEO of a Tennessee telemedicine company has been fired after being captured on video making disparaging remarks to a male high school student in a prom dress.
James Dalton Stevens told news outlets he wanted to make a statement with the dress but didn’t expect the kind of attention he got from the man who was later identified as VisuWell CEO Sam Johnson.
Stevens said Johnson ridiculed him for wearing a dress as he took photos with his boyfriend on Saturday at a hotel in Franklin.
VisuWell tweeted on Monday that the termination was effective immediately and that the company unequivocally condemns Johnson’s behavior in the video.
In subsequent interviews with news media, Johnson has claimed that he confronted the teens because of their loud, lewd, disruptive behavior near families with small children, not because of the dress Stevens was wearing.
