A former Houston Texans cheerleader filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against the team and its cheerleading director, claiming that the cheerleaders were not compensated properly and that their director verbally harassed them and did nothing to safeguard them from abusive fans.
The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Houston, alleges that the Texans paid the women $7.25 per hour, the state’s minimum wage, for their part-time work and required them to work unpaid overtime. The plaintiff, named in the lawsuit only by her initials, P.G.G., also says in the suit that the director, Altovise Gary, unnecessarily criticized the women’s bodies and purposely embarrassed them by saying they were overweight or flabby.