This woman was prepared to start a new $70,000 a year job at Con Edison, one of the largest energy companies in the US, when the offer was revoked after a background check.

But while you might think the 26-year-old Samantha Chirichella from New Jersey may have had the job offer for having a criminal record, say, or having pictures of her doing drugs on Facebook.

No, it was nothing like that. It was a picture of her kissing another woman that was posted to her Instagram three years ago.

The photo, produced for her friend’s art exhibit, saw Chirichella pose topless kissing another woman’s breast. Another woman, mirror imaged, is seen kissing Chirichella’s breast.

Con Edison decided to withdraw the job offer on the grounds the image was ‘sexually explicit’.

But Chirichella disagreed, saying the reason was not because of the image but because of her sexual orientation.

She filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing Con Edison of discrimination on the grounds of her sexuality.

Her lawyer, Arthur Schwartz, said: ‘The work was no more sexually explicit that the works of Da Vinci, Titian or Michaelangelo, and less explicit than photos published in Sports Illustrated.’

Following the story being first posted in New York Daily News and reported on widely, Con Edison changed their mind over the ‘rush of media interest’ in the lawsuit.

They re-offered Chirichella the job once again, and she accepted.

Schwartz added: ‘We appreciate Con Edison’s rapid resolution of this dispute and the sensitivity of the posting and its frank discussion of homosexuality. Ms. Chirichella is a smart, capable woman, whose father is a “lifer” at Con Edison and they will not regret this decision.’