A San Francisco firefighter who thinks he may have contracted HIV while in the line of duty says that the subsequent harassment by fellow firefighters and mistreatment by the SFFD amounted to discrimination. Stephen Kloster, 40, filed a "wide-ranging" lawsuit against the city last week, claiming that after being diagnosed with HIV in 2006 and returning to work in 2007 after a period of illness, it became widely known that he was positive and many firefighters proceeded to taunt him with homophobic remarks over multiple years. This led to Kloster having disputes with superiors and facing disciplinary action, as the Examiner reports, but he claims that when he was removed from active duty and not reassigned to a firehouse after a vacation in 2014, that was discriminatory practice on the part of the department.

Kloster has been working a $15-per-hour security job to make ends meet and support an elderly mother, but he has wanted to be back to work as a firefighter.

One veteran firefighter confirms for the Ex the "macho" environment that typically pervades in firehouses, and says there has been "no substantive training on HIV in [his] 18 years" in the SFFD.

Kloster, who is heterosexual and says he's only ever had HIV-negative sex partners and never done intravenous drugs, believes he likely contracted the virus in 2003 in an incident when his face and eyes came in contact with blood from a patient's open head wound while he was loading the patient onto a stretcher. He became extremely ill in 2006, quickly losing 100 pounds, and only then discovered he was positive. In 2012, the city's human resources department declared his illness officially work-related.

It remains to be seen how the city will respond to Kloster's claim. As CBS 5 reports, the City Attorney's office has declined to comment, and the fire department confirms that Kloster remains an employee.