18-year old Dalton Stevens wore a bright red dress to a high school prom on Saturday in Franklin, Tennessee. Sam Johnson, the CEO of a telehealth company saw him at the Harpeth Hotel and allegedly harassed him, as video that went viral shows.
Johnson, VisuWell says, has been “terminated” from his job.
“We unequivocally condemn the behavior exhibited by Sam Johnson in a recent video widely circulated on social media. After investigating the matter and speaking to individuals involved, the VisuWell BOD has chosen to terminate Mr. Johnson from his position as CEO, effective immediately,” the company said in a statement.
Heavy reported that Stevens’ boyfriend Jacob Geittmann, “originally posted the video on TikTok and then on Twitter. He said his boyfriend, Dalton Stevens, wore the dress ‘for his senior prom to kind of break the stigma around men wearing dresses. He looked gorgeous, everybody loved it and nobody had a problem with it.'”
Geitmann added, ‘We went to this hotel close to where we live and we got a lot of good photos and we were there for about an hour and right as we were about to leave we standing outside in this little middle area with a bunch of buildings surrounding us. This man comes up and he’s about an inch away from my boyfriend and he says, ‘What are you wearing?’ And he’s like, ‘A dress, why?’ And he’s like, ‘Why are you wearing that? You shouldn’t be wearing that.’”
Geitmann said his boyfriend responded, “because I can and I want to.” According to Geitmann, Johnson then started “going on and on” and was “throwing insults at him … ‘You look disgusting, you look ridiculous, you look like an idiot. Men shouldn’t be wearing this.’ All this homophobic banter.”
Johnson told Newsweek he did not harass Stevens and his comments were “edited” to make them appear to be about the dress.
“I have no ill will towards anyone or their personal choices, so long as it does not harm me or my family,” Johnson said.
This copy of the video has been viewed 1.2 million times.