A loan company with an office in Missouri is facing a sex discrimination lawsuit from a transgender man. The Mississippi-based company, First Tower Loan LLC, has been accused of forcing a 21-year-old transgender man to leave his job at the company by requiring him to dress and act like a woman. The case is being supported by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The plaintiff in the sex discrimination lawsuit was hired by First Tower Loan in February 2013 to work as a sales representative in Lake Charles. While his employment paperwork was being processed in March 2013, one of the man’s supervisors noticed that he was listed as female on his driver’s license. When confronted about the biographic information, the plaintiff explained to his supervisor that he was transgender.
A few days after the man’s transgender status became known, the plaintiff was asked to sign a statement declaring that he agreed to dress and act like a woman and stay in rooms with female coworkers while on business trips. The plaintiff left his job after refusing to sign the statement. After reviewing the case, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that the transgender man’s employer had been discriminatory.
Although some instances of employment discrimination can be difficult to prove, there are others where the employer makes their discriminatory practices obvious. An employee who has been asked to change the way that they express their gender as a condition of employment may be able to file a sex discrimination lawsuit against their employer.
Source ABC News, “Transgender Man Sues Loan Company Over Sex Bias Claim,” Cain Burdeau, April 13, 2015
