Advertisement

Transgender man fired after refusing to dress as a woman

Tristan Broussard says he was fired for refusing to dress as a woman. Photo: Twitter

A transgender man who says he was fired after he refused to dress as a woman at work is suing his former employer for discrimination.

Twenty-one-year-old Tristan Broussard was legally born a female, however, he says he has always known he was male and began transitioning at the age of 18 when he could do so without parental consent.

He successfully worked his way up to a job as a trainee manager at Tower Loans in Lousiana and was receiving positive feedback from his superiors until one day he was called into the back office.

“The manager ends up tapping me on the should … he asks me to go to the back with him and the other manager,” Broussard said in a video published by the Southern Poverty Legal Centre.

“He slides me a little stack of papers … and it’s a guideline obviously of the dress code and the paper says female on it.

“He said he had a talk with the corporate (sic) and basically we had to draw a line here so if you can comply that you’re female and you choose to dress as a female then, you know, you can continue to work for Tower Loans.”


Broussard said he was asked to sign a document acknowledging that he was not complying with company policies by dressing as a man.

He said he refused to sign the document.

“I know how to dress professional and I’d been doing that from day one,” Broussard said.

His case was taken up by several legal services who came to his defense.

He is now asking for Tower Loans to pay his legal costs as well as back pay, alleging the company broke the law when it asked him to dress and act as a female.

Broussard said he was forced to take a job as a pizza delivery driver after leaving Tower Loans which led to a “rough” period in his life.

National news break – April 14