A trans man who worked for a home health care agency based in Philadelphia filed suit against his former employer, claiming anti-trans bias and harassment forced him out of a job.
“John Doe” filed a federal lawsuit last month against Elite Home Health Care LLC, claiming he was repeatedly misgendered and mistreated in other ways while working as a home health aide.
According to Doe’s 30-page lawsuit, his problems at Elite began in May 2023, when a client identified only as “Jihad” learned about his trans status and outed him to co-workers beyond the extent to which Doe was comfortable.
Despite Doe’s discomfort, he remained assigned to Jihad and was required to provide home-health care to the person, according to the lawsuit.
Doe informed Jihad that “he,” “him” and “his” were the pronouns that matched his gender identity. However, Jihad disregarded the information and continually misgendered Doe, according to the lawsuit.
“[Jihad] also deadnamed [Doe] by using a name for [Doe] that was not [Doe’s] preferred name and was not consistent with [Doe’s] gender identity,” the lawsuit states. “The misgendering and deadnaming was intentional as it continued to occur despite [Doe] correcting [Jihad].”
The workplace misgendering by Jihad was a form of intentional sex discrimination and prohibited by federal law, according to the lawsuit.
Jihad also referred to Doe as a “bitch.” Additionally, Jihad left a phone message with Doe stating that Jihad realized Doe believes he’s a male, but in reality Doe is a female, according to the lawsuit.
Doe expressed concern about Jihad’s alleged mistreatment to an owner of Elite Home Health Care. However, the owner repeatedly misgendered Doe while discussing the situation with Jihad, according to the lawsuit.
Due to the alleged mistreatment — and the alleged unwillingness of the owner to correct the situation — Doe had no other choice but to resign his position in October 2023, according to the lawsuit.
Doe’s lawsuit alleges sex discrimination; hostile work environment; failure to accommodate a disability; anti-trans bias; and constructive discharge.
Doe is seeking more than $150,000 in damages, along with a neutral employment reference and sensitivity training for the entire staff at Elite Home Health Care.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter. A jury trial has been requested. Neither side had a comment for this story.