The federal lawsuit alleges Chelsea Zahn was denied over $50,000 in commissions by team owner Art Rooney II after she complained about systemic pay disparity.
Chelsea Zahn, a gay woman who served as a corporate sales manager for the Pittsburgh Steelers, has filed a lawsuit against the team, alleging she was underpaid compared to male colleagues and targeted for discrimination based on her gender and sexual orientation.
The 6-count lawsuit, Zahn v. Pittsburgh Steelers LLC, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on January 13. It alleges the Steelers organization created a hostile work environment after learning Zahn is gay and that team owner Arthur J. Rooney II specifically denied her more than $50,000 in commissions owed for 2024.
Zahn, who has requested a jury trial, is seeking compensatory damages, payment of attorneys’ fees, and any additional relief the court deems appropriate.
She previously filed a charge of discrimination and retaliation with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) last year, cross-filing that charge with the Pennsylvania Human Rights Commission. The EEOC issued a “Notice of the Right to Sue” on November 18, giving Zahn 90 days to file a lawsuit.
Steelers spokesman Burt Lauten declined to comment on the lawsuit when reached by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. According to the newspaper, the Steelers hired Zahn in July 2013 as a part-time marketing intern and sponsorship assistant, before hiring her on a full-time basis a year later.
Zahn was promoted in 2017 to partnership activation manager, a role where she handled sales-related tasks. While she eventually earned a promotion to corporate sales manager in 2022, the lawsuit alleges she was denied that same advancement on two prior occasions because she was told she was “too young” for the roles. The filing does not specify Zahn’s current age.
Once promoted to corporate sales manager, Zahn alleges she received a lower salary and commission structure than her male, and heterosexual, colleagues. She reportedly secured more than $1.8 million in new sponsorships for the 2024 sales season—a figure she says was “the highest amount of new sponsorship business secured by any corporate sales manager for the 2024 sales season.”
Although she earned $100,625 in commissions that year, Zahn alleges Rooney “decided not to pay her the entire…amount owed,” ostensibly because he was “upset that [she] left the company.” She received a check for $50,000, which she did not cash because it was less than half the owed amount. Meanwhile, she discovered that other corporate sales managers — all of whom are male and heterosexual — were paid their commissions in full.
In the filing, Zahn’s lawyers characterize Rooney’s reasoning as “pretextual and unworthy of belief, as heterosexual male employees of the defendant were paid their full bonuses/commissions owed to them after they had left their employment with defendant.”
Zahn maintains the shortfall was actually retaliation for her internal complaints and a result of her “failure to adhere to traditional gender stereotypes.” Consequently, the suit accuses the Steelers organization of violating the federal Equal Pay Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
Additionally, the lawsuit claims the Steelers organization violated Pennsylvania’s Wage Payment and Collection Law by failing to pay her full earnings.
“This is a disappointment to all Steelers fans, that the team we all follow so closely is involved in discriminating against women and against people who are not heterosexual,” Zahn’s attorney, Joel Sansone, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
“We intend to follow this all the way through,” Sansone said. “Personally, this is hard for me. I bleed black and gold. But my firm wants to make sure the team we all love follows the rules in this country.”
The Dallas Landmark Commission unanimously approved rainbow-colored steps outside Oak Lawn United Methodist Church as a temporary art installation, allowing the display to remain for up to three years despite objections that they violate historic preservation codes.
As a designated historic site, Oak Lawn United Methodist Church is required to seek city approval before making major exterior changes, including paint colors, according to Dallas-area PBS/NPR affiliate KERA.
The LGBTQ-welcoming church did not submit an application to the landmark commission before repainting its exterior steps in the colors of the "Progress Pride" flag, incorporating the traditional rainbow along with black and brown stripes and the blue, pink, and white of the transgender Pride flag.
Federal lawmakers have passed the annual National Defense Authorization Act, a sweeping defense policy bill that includes a new federal ban on transgender women competing on female-designated sports teams at U.S. military service academies.
The ban on transgender athletes was folded into the 3,086-page bill, which authorizes approximately $900 billion in military and national security spending for 2026, according to Mother Jones. The House of Representatives passed the measure by a 312-112 vote, with 94 Democrats and 18 Republicans opposed. The Senate followed with a 75-22 vote, and the bill now heads to President Donald Trump for his signature.
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, the first out gay leader of the Israeli parliament, angered the ultra-Orthodox parties within the conservative Likud-led governing coalition after voting in favor of a civil marriage bill last week.
The proposed bill, which was ultimately defeated, was introduced by the centrist Yesh Atid party, the largest faction in the opposition. It would have established a legal framework for regulating same-sex partnerships in Israel, including a couples registry, eligibility requirements, registration procedures, and mechanisms for dissolving civil marriages.
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