Transgender pizza employee said she quit over discrimination

SEATTLE — Dylan Paul, 24, said she was more than hurt when she complained that a customer mis-gendered her while she was working last Monday.

“I was working the salad station near the entrance to the restaurant of Broadway Paggliacci’s. Working there, your function is greeting customers, taking and making salad orders, and bidding customers farewell. It was in the evening on a shift I’d picked up from a coworker when I was saying goodbye to one of our regular customers. He returned the gesture, misgendering me as “man,” which isn’t something too unusual in my life.

I corrected him, “It’s ma’am actaully.” He didn’t hear me clearly the first time, and asked me to repeat myself.

"Ma’am, I’m not a man."  He heard me clearly that time, and laughed at me before going about topping his pizza with the condiments we keep by the door. I had a few moments to say something, but I was too in shock to respond. On my way home I resolved to say something to him if I saw him in the restaurant again,” said Paul in her blog.

Paul was upset that her co-workers and supervisors did not try to take her side in the situation so she decided to quit and then afterwards, she complained about the situation and said she was later fired for standing up for her beliefs.

The owner of Pagliacci’s Matt Galvin said when he heard about the situation he took full responsibility and wanted to make sure that type of behavior was not acceptable at any of the Pagliacci’s.

He offered to re-hire Paul but she has not decided if she would go back.

He also is planning sensitivity training for all Pagliacci employees because of the incident.

Paul said this incident shows that the problem of transgender discrimination is a larger problem in workplaces across Seattle.

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