BUTTE – Skyler Jordan was shocked when she was suddenly fired Sunday from a Butte restaurant.
She claims she was fired for being transgender.
“I’ve never been fired from a job and I’ve always worked in the restaurant industry and this is baffling to me,” said Jordan.
Jordan, who was born male but identifies as female, came to work Saturday at Sparky’s restaurant wearing a little bit of makeup.
Her manager objected.
“He didn’t want me to wear makeup and that I couldn’t and that my job depended on it. And that I didn’t present the wholesomeness and family-oriented atmosphere,” said Jordan.
Jordan washed off the makeup and continued with her work day. The next morning, a pair of LGBTQ representatives visited Jordan’s manager and told him that Butte has an anti-discrimination ordinance. They allege Jordan’s manager fired her on the spot.
“This is not what we wanted. We met friendly, in person to try to help this situation and it turned into this so fast,” said Samantha Brown of the Rainbow Plus Community Center.
The Rainbow Center group believes this is discrimination.
“We got ahold the Human Rights Network, filed a report, we’re also filing reports with the Human Rights Bureau of Montana,” said Brown.
The Rainbow group is taking on this issue because they believe it’s a civil rights matter and Skyler has the right to work regardless of her gender identity.
“Well, I don’t want to be discriminated against and I don’t want anybody else in the LGBTQ community or any type of community even, quote-unquote, normal people to be discriminated for any reason,” said Jordan.
Calls and emails left with Sparky’s management seeking comment about this matter Tuesday were not returned.
