A transgender woman is suing a Hooters franchise for discrimination after they allegedly refused to hire her based on “her image.”
Brandy Livingston has been a regular customer at the restaurant, famous for its scantily clad waitresses, on Wolf Road in Colonie, a New York suburb of Albany.
With career aspirations of working for the chain, Livingston had applied to go public three times, but all of them were unsuccessful, she said.
talking to News10Livingston said she was not respected as a woman at the establishment, alleging that workers actively discriminated against her.
She told the outlet: ‘They would use male pronouns. They would refer to me as him.
Brandy Livingston has been a regular at the restaurant on Wolf Road in Colonie, a suburb of Albany in New York.
Livingston filed a complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights, who investigated and found evidence that her rights may have been violated.
When he was denied the job, he added: “I said, ‘Do you want to see my experience or something?’ Because I had previous jobs that I had written down.
And he said, “Oh, we don’t care about the experience. We hire based on personality. And there is an image that must be fulfilled.”
Livingston said she had also heard employees and the restaurant manager harass her for using the bathroom.
She claimed: “I overheard one of the waiters after leaving the bathroom talking to one of the managers and he said, ‘Why are you allowing him into the women’s bathroom?’
“And the manager said, ‘Oh, I don’t like it any more than you do.’
Livingston filed a complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights, who investigated and found evidence that her rights may have been violated.
Hooters has since responded to the claims, saying Livingston had been told not to return to the establishment over alleged offensive behavior.
His lawyers said Livingston allegedly made sexually explicit comments to servers on multiple occasions before his transition.
News10 reporter James De La Fuente questioned Livingston about this, saying the network had accused her of asking waiters to marry her and talking about masturbation.
Livingston said she had also heard employees and the restaurant manager harass her for using the bathroom.
The restaurant chain is famous for its aging waitresses, seen here representing the company at a Nascar event in 2021.
Protesters are seen here outside the restaurant in support of Livingston and his claims.
The company also said it had threatened to “go to a shooting range to practice the next time I came to the restaurant.”
Livingston told the outlet that: ‘I never said anything about that. My mom took me to the shooting range and to skeet and trap shooting.
“I feel like one of the waiters might have heard what my dad and I were talking about and misunderstood what we were talking about.”
Due to the findings of the state Division of Human Rights, Hooters and Livingston will attend a hearing next September.
Livingston told the outlet that he doesn’t want money for his claims, adding, “What I really want is an apology.” I’m never going to get that.’
DailyMail.com has contacted Hooters for comment.