Transgender fire chief files discrimination suit over firing

SAVANNAH, Georgia (AP):

A transgender fire chief has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the small Georgia city where she led the fire department for more than a decade, then was fired 18 months after she began coming to work as a woman.

Rachel Mosby says her firing last summer by the city of Byron not only cost her wages and retirement benefits, but also tarnished her reputation. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in US District Court in Macon says city officials fired Mosby “based on her sex, gender identity, and notions of sex stereotyping.”

Mosby’s June 4 termination letter cited poor job performance and made no mention of her gender transition.

Illegal sex discrimination

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has treated LGBT-based job discrimination cases as illegal sex discrimination since 2013. This could end if the US Supreme Court decides firings and harassment based on a worker’s sexual orientation or gender identity don’t qualify as sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act.

The Supreme Court heard cases on that issue October 8. Its ruling is still pending.

A city of about 4,500 in a farming region outside Macon, Byron hired Mosby as its fire marshal in 2007. The city established its first professional fire department a few months later and promoted Mosby to fire chief in January 2008.

The lawsuit says Mosby spent years growing the department, obtaining grants to pay for equipment and improving its rating, which insurers use to help assess a community’s fire risk.

Mosby started coming to work as a woman in January 2018, more than a year after she began a medical transition. At first, city hall colleagues and administrators were supportive, she said, but it didn’t last long.

“They didn’t want somebody like me in that position, or any position with the city,” Mosby told The Associated Press in a September interview.

After making her transition public, Mosby said, she was ordered to start wearing a uniform the first day she came to work in a skirt. Previously, Mosby often wore suits and ties. Some city officials insisted on referring to her using male pronouns, according to the lawsuit. When Mosby fired a reserve firefighter who called the chief a slur to her face, the firefighter appealed and was reinstated by the city.

In January 2018, Byron’s City Council changed its personnel policy to eliminate appeals for any department heads the city fires. Derick Hayes, Byron’s city administrator, fired her that summer.