Transgender Fire Chief Files Discrimination Lawsuit Against Georgia Town Over Termination

A transgender former fire chief in Georgia, who led the department for more than a decade, has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Byron alleging discrimination. She claimed she was handed a termination order after she started showing up at work as a woman.

Rachel Mosby was terminated on June 4, 2019, citing poor job performance without any mention of her gender transition. Mosby said the firing has cost her wages and retirement benefits. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Macon, where she claimed she was fired “based on her sex, gender identity, and notions of sex stereotyping,” thereby tarnishing her reputation, according to the Associated Press.

Mosby was hired as a fire marshal in 2007 and she started going to work as a woman in January 2018, over a year after she began a medical transition. She said her colleagues embraced her new appearance at first but that didn’t last long.

Mosby, before making her transition public, reported to work in suits and ties. She was ordered to wear a uniform the very day she went to work in a skirt, with some city officials bent on referring to her with male pronouns. When Mosby fired a firefighter who used a racial slur at her, the man appealed and was reinstated by the city.

“They didn’t want somebody like me in that position, or any position with the city,” Mosby told the publication in September.

Derick Hayes, Byron’s city administrator, fired her that summer, right after the city council revised its personnel policy to eliminate appeals for any heads the department fires.

Hayes said in the termination letter that he was firing Mosby for three reasons – her negligence causing a backlog of businesses awaiting approval, for wasting the city’s money by attending only five classes at a recent fire chief conference, and failing to maintain certification as an arson investigator.

In the lawsuit, Mosby also claimed discriminations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, attributing the work backlog cited in her termination to frequent doctor visits and physical therapy appointments to treat back and hip problems caused by a job-related injury.

However, Byron Mayor Michael Chidester rubbished her allegations.

“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.

Mosby said when she filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the officials took no notice, and thus she went on to sue the city.