Husband Forcibly Outed At Work, Coworkers Now Openly Talk And Debate About His Sexual Orientation - Michigan

I will try to keep this as short and concise as I can.

My husband works for a company in a very conservative area. I am transgender.

Husband's coworkers have said some very ugly things about transgender people in front of him, so he has not been forthcoming about my gender identity.

A few months ago, he opened up to one coworker he thought he could trust and mentioned that I am trans. All seemed well.

Fast foward to a couple of weeks ago, a brand new hire came to my husband asking about resources for transgender people locally. My husband asked why new hire would ask him specifically about this issue, and the new hire said it was because he's married to a transgender person. Husband asks how he knows that, new hire says, "I thought everyone knew. Everyone talks about it."

New hire has disclosed to husband that entire unofficial staff discussions have been had about him being married to a trans person, and what that implies about his sexuality, debating on the logistics of how we have children, pulling up our social medias to find picture of me, etc, at work. One person, not the person he originally opened up to, seems to be the prime instigator. This person has even pulled aside contractors and 3rd party workers to gossip about husband being married to a transgender person.

This is, at least in my mind, a hostile work environment. We'd like to know if anything can be done that won't put his job at risk.

We worry about going to HR, with this being a conservative area in an at-will state. Husband thinks nothing can be "proven" and doesn't want the new hire getting dragged into it and risking his job as well.

Any insights or guidance would be much appreciated.