Transgender fire chief claims she was harassed and fired from job when she started coming to work as a woman
A transgender fire chief filed a discrimination suit on Tuesday, April 28, claiming that she was let go from her job after she started coming to work as a woman. Rachel Mosby had been working at the Byron Fire Department, Georgia, for the past 10 years.
Mosby said that her removal from her job in June 2019 not only cost her wages and retirement benefits but also damaged her reputation in a department she led for more than a decade. "They didn't want somebody like me in that position, or any position with the city," she said.
The job termination letter reportedly cited poor job performance as the reason for her removal and did not mention her recent gender transition.
The lawsuit filed by Mosby in U.S. District Court in Macon, however, accused city officials of firing her "based on her sex, gender identity, and notions of sex stereotyping." Mosby said that after she made her transition public, she was ordered to start wearing a uniform the first day she came to work in a skirt. The former fire chief had previously worn suits and ties to work.
The suit claimed that some city officials, despite her gender change, insisted on referring to her using male pronouns. When Mosby, on one instance, fired a reserve firefighter for calling a slur to her face, the firefighter appealed and was reinstated by city officials.
Mosby began coming to work as a woman in January 2018, over a year after she began a medical gender transition. She said that her city hall colleagues and administrators were supportive of her decision at first, however, the support did no continue later.
Mayor Michael Chidester, in an email to the Daily Mail, said that he had not seen the lawsuit filed by Mosby, and denied her allegations of discrimination. "It has been the contention of the City since claims were filed with the EEOC that such claims had and have no basis in fact," he said on Tuesday.
Mosby was hired as a fire marshal in 2007. Bryon, a city of nearly 4,500, later established its professional fire department, Byron Fire Department, and made her the fire chief in January 2008. Mosby, according to the suit, spent years growing the department and obtaining grants to pay for equipment and improving its rating.
Byron's City Council, in January 2018, reportedly changed its personnel policy to eliminate appeals for any department heads the city fires. A few months later, the city's administrator Derick Hayes fired Mosby. He cited three reasons for removing Mosby, stating that she was responsible for a backlog of business licenses awaiting approval; she attended only five classes at a recent fire chief's conference, wasting the city's money; and that she did not maintain her certification as an arson investigator, the termination letter stated.
The lawsuit stated that when Mosby approached the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — which considers LGBT-based job discrimination as illegal sex discrimination — the organization did not take any action after reviewing her case last year, which made her turn to the court to file her suit on her own.