Transgender worker sues Georgia Chick-fil-A over firing, alleged homophobic comments
Drive through customers wait in line at a Chick-fil-A restaurant on August 1, 2012 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
DECATUR, Ga. - A transgender woman is suing a downtown Decatur Chick-fil-A over for allegedly firing her over her gender identity.
According to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Aaron White says in 2021 she was on her first day of training to be director of operations at the Chick-fil-A franchise when she was harassed by another employee making sexual comments.
White says she went to report the alleged harassment to the franchise owner. However, when she told him she was transgender she says he "responded by saying that it should be an honor that with Plaintiff being a transgender woman that someone liked her enough to hit on her," Nation's Restaurant News reported.
After that interaction, White claims in her lawsuit that the employee and other workers began taunting her with homophobic comments and misgendered her repeatedly.
White was eventually fired from the restaurant by the owner allegedly for being late to work and abruptly walking off her shift. However, she alleges that the time she left early she had been allowed to go.
"Defendant did not take reasonable steps to correct the situation or prevent the harassment from recurring after being notified by Plaintiff on numerous occasions," the lawsuit states. "As a direct result of the Defendant’s actions and inactions, Plaintiff has suffered emotional pain and suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, and other nonpecuniary losses."