A New Jersey transgender man last week filed an employment discrimination lawsuit that challenges the inclusion of trans workers in gender-specific jobs, a suit considered to be the first of its kind.
The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, on behalf of plaintiff El’Jai Devoureau, filed suit April 8 with the Superior Court of New Jersey against the Camden-based Urban Treatment Associates LLC.
The agency hired Devoureau in June 2010 as a urine monitor for men, a position that required him to oversee that men reporting to the drug-treatment center were providing their own, and not falsified, urine samples.
The job description required that a male hold the position and, upon learning that Devoureau was born female, the agency terminated him.
New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination prevents employment discrimination based on gender identity.
Michael Silverman, executive director of the TLDEF, said the issues this case addresses have never been raised in an employment-discrimination lawsuit before.
“This is the first case like this, so it’s very unique,” he said. “There are a limited number of positions out there for which there are legitimate sex qualifications. And then there’s the question of whether a transgender person satisfies those sex qualifications, and that’s a question no court has ever answered.”
The suit notes that Devoureau, 39, is “legally, medically and socially” male.
He began psychological counseling and testosterone therapy in 2006 and underwent sex-reassignment surgery in 2009, around the same time he obtained a legal name-change and updated federal- and state-issued government identification to reflect his sex.
The suit states that the woman who hired Devoureau did not question his sex during the interview or on his first day on the job. When he reported for his second day of work, however, the suit says the defendant, treatment center director Van Macaluso, said she heard from an unnamed source that Devoureau was born female.
Devoureau responded to Macaluso that he was male and refused to respond, his right under the nondiscrimination law, when questioned if he’d had sex-reassignment surgery, which the suit says prompted Macaluso to fire him.
Silverman said the firing had a very profound impact on Devoureau.
“He was depressed because he’d never encountered discrimination of this nature before,” he said. “He was unemployed for a long period, and it took him a long time to get back on his feet.”
The suit contends three counts of discrimination, based on sex, gender identity and disability, as transsexualism is largely considered a disorder by leading medical agencies.
Devoureau is requesting reinstatement, back pay and compensatory and punitive damages.
Urban Treatment Associates has 45 days to respond to the suit.
Silverman said his client is hoping the suit has ramifications beyond his own employment situation.
“He wants to get his job back but on a larger scale he wants to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. We need a clear ruling from the court that a transman is a man for the purposes of employment. The key principle here is that people should be judged on how they do their jobs, not on who they are.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].