Calling a transgender employee by wrong pronoun?

A transgender employee recently claimed that she was harassed and mocked by coworkers before she was fired because of her sex. She claimed that employees repeatedly stood in groups gawking, laughing and pointing at her and made crude disparaging remarks about her being transgender.

The employee filed a charge of discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which found reasonable cause that the employer violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act for sex discrimination. When the employer failed to settle the matter in the way that the EEOC wanted, the EEOC sued the employer on behalf of the transgender employee.

The employee, referred to in the federal lawsuit as Danielle, worked for two weeks. She claimed that during her brief employment, she was called “tranny,” repeatedly asked if she had male genitalia, and referred to as “Daniel” and by male pronouns by her coworkers. 

She asked her coworkers to stop multiple times, but they didn’t, the lawsuit says. “One of the employees responded by saying, ‘I don’t know what the big deal is because you’re a tranny … you must be used to this by now,’” the lawsuit says. 

She told the general manager about the harassment “at least” three times, but nothing was done, said the EEOC in the legal action. 

A co-worker complained about the harassment to the area director, who met with the general manager four days later, the lawsuit says. Danielle was fired later that day “in retaliation for engaging in protected activity, namely opposing sex harassment,” the lawsuit says.

You can find out what happened and read the entire article for free at Calling a transgender employee by wrong pronoun?