Transgender woman’s lawsuit accuses Barnes & Noble of discrimination, harassment

A transgender woman who worked at Barnes & Noble stores in Huntington Beach and Irvine sued the bookseller last week, alleging that she was humiliated and then pushed out of her job when she began transitioning from male to female.

Victoria Ramirez worked at Barnes & Noble for six years, most of the time representing herself as Tyson Ramirez, according to a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court by the Transgender Law Center and two other firms representing Ramirez.

According to the lawsuit, when Ramirez began wearing makeup, dressing as a woman and taking female hormones to aid her gender transition, her manager at the Irvine store mocked her and forbade her from revealing her gender identity.

The complaint alleges that the manager insisted the Barnes & Noble was a “neighborhood store” and that Ramirez should “think of the children.”

Ramirez began having panic attacks from the stress of hiding her gender at work and was eventually fired in 2013 when she told her manager she couldn’t comply with the rules that she alleges Barnes & Noble placed on her.

The lawsuit claims the manager and other officials at the company barred Ramirez from wearing makeup or skirts, using the women’s restroom or talking about her transition with co-workers.

According to the lawsuit, Ramirez’s manager told her the rules were instituted to keep customers and employees from feeling uncomfortable or sexually harassed.

After losing her job, Ramirez became depressed and considered killing herself, the lawsuit states.

“After giving six years of my life to Barnes & Noble, I was devastated when I was fired simply for being myself,” Ramirez said in a statement provided by the Transgender Law Center. “I lost my livelihood, my financial stability and my confidence.”

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages based on 14 claims including discrimination, harassment and retaliation.

Barnes & Noble did not respond to specific questions but did provide a prepared statement.

“While it is our policy not to comment directly on individual employees, it is important to point out that Barnes & Noble has a history of supporting and employing transgender individuals,” spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating wrote. “When an employee informs us that he or she will be transitioning, we work directly with the employee to provide the support they need to feel comfortable in the workplace.”

The statement also noted that Barnes & Noble has received perfect scores on the Human Rights Commission’s Corporate Equality Index, a report that tracks how well companies institute policies inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

“We are very proud to employ a large number of transgender individuals, whom, like all employees, are treated with dignity and respect,” the statement said.