He flagged the comments to HR. The supervisor stayed in his chain of command anyway
A Comcast senior manager says his boss mocked his clothes and HR told him to "just take" it.
Patrick Diogenia, a former senior manager at Comcast, sued the company and his direct supervisor on May 10, 2026, alleging sexual-orientation and gender-identity harassment and a hostile work environment. The case was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Diogenia joined Comcast on or around September 12, 2022 at an initial base salary of $130,000. He says he is gay and disclosed his sexual orientation during interviews. According to the complaint, he was recruited by a high-ranking LGBTQ employee - and his soon-to-be supervisor, Senior Director of Marketing Technology Andrew "AJ" Antonioli, opposed the hire.
The filing describes a pattern HR teams will find familiar. Diogenia alleges that starting in September 2022, Antonioli limited him to one question per department-wide meeting and made him submit a weekly task agenda. Neither requirement applied to peers, the complaint says. The following spring, the filing alleges, a vice president gave Diogenia "strategic oversight" of a high-profile project. Antonioli stepped in and downgraded his role to "proposals and contracts."
Then came the comments. The complaint alleges that during a February 2023 lunch, Antonioli said he would be perplexed and disturbed if one of his children were gay, and that he would try to persuade the child to reconsider. According to the filing, Antonioli described sexual orientation other than heterosexual as abnormal. Diogenia alleges Antonioli later acknowledged he had been through implicit bias training and had "problems" in the past.
The filing also alleges that in April or May 2023, Antonioli told Diogenia his clothing was "too fancy," that he should "tone down" how he dressed, and asked him to be more "normal." When Diogenia objected, the complaint says Antonioli told him the matter was not "open for discussion" and made comments about "protecting the company."
The HR piece is what gives the case its sting. Diogenia says he raised the conduct in May 2023 with Director and Human Resources Leader Deb Gainer. According to the complaint, Gainer told him to work things out with Antonioli and "just take" the scrutiny. The filing alleges Gainer also said Antonioli had already told HR and senior leaders that Diogenia was insubordinate, and asked Diogenia whether he was doing the same things to Antonioli that he was complaining about. According to the filing, no investigation followed at that point.
Diogenia went on medical leave on or around May 10, 2023, citing panic attacks, sleep disturbances, anxiety, and depression. He filed a written complaint in November 2023. Comcast investigated and determined the allegations unsubstantiated, according to the filing. On or around June 10, 2024, the company offered to bring him back with an intermediary supervisor, but kept Antonioli in his chain of command. The complaint says his medical providers did not support that arrangement. He was fired on July 3, 2024.
The suit brings two counts - harassment and hostile work environment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act. Diogenia is seeking compensatory, equitable, and punitive damages, plus attorney's fees. He is represented by Christopher J. DelGaizo of Derek Smith Law Group, PLLC.
The complaint also flags that although Diogenia signed an arbitration agreement and has a matter pending before JAMS, his sexual harassment claims fall outside arbitration under the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021. That carve-out is steering more of these disputes into open court.
For HR directors, the lessons are familiar but worth restating. Differential treatment - one question per meeting, weekly agendas not asked of others - shows up in nearly every hostile work environment complaint. A return-to-work plan that leaves the alleged harasser in the chain of command rarely satisfies a plaintiff or a court. And when an HR leader is named in the filing by name and by quote, the function itself becomes part of the story.
The allegations have not been tested in court. The defendants have not yet filed a response, and no court has ruled.
