A transgender server is suing Midway Airport's food service company for wrongful termination and employment discrimination.
Hamed Khan, a former server at Harry Caray's Seventh Inning Stretch, alleges that supervisors ignored transphobic taunts, subjected Khan to unfair treatment and then terminated Khan for calling attention to the discrimination.
Khan filed suit Dec. 1 after the Illinois Department of Human Rights issued a statement of "substantial evidence" to Khan's claims on four counts in September.
The suit, which names MAC One Midway LLC, the company that oversees food service at the airport, seeks $200,000 in damages plus attorney's fees and lost wages.
"They just put me through a living hell," Khan told Windy City Times. "It was really bad."
Khan began working at Harry Caray's Seventh Inning Stretch in 2002. At the time, Khan, who was assigned male at birth, did not identify as transgender. Over the years, however, Khan's appearance became more feminine.
Khan, who currently identifies simply as transgender and does not like male or female pronouns, had planned to transition to female at work and had spoken with supervisors about plans to transition, according to the complaint. Despite that conversation, Khan said, employees taunted Khan while supervisors refused to intervene.
"I was sent home for uniform issues," Khan recalled. "My pants were too tight. I was told they were too feminine."
Khan's complaint goes on to detail several instances in 2009 in which co-workers allegedly called Khan "faggot," while supervisors ignored Khan's reports of discrimination.
According to the complaint, a line cook at Harry Caray's said that Khan's deceased parents would be "disgusted" by Khan, while another co-worker called Khan a "lazy faggot bitch."
It further claims that Gloria Watkins, Khan's supervisor, told Khan that co-workers "were offended by his voice, actions and ways" in reference to Khan's mannerisms.
The suit alleges that when Khan continued to complain about the harassment, supervisors schemed to fire Khan, claiming that Khan had broken company policy by stepping behind the restaurant's bar area without permission. Khan said that workers were given permission to go behind the bar to use a computer to print customer checks that day because the employee computer had crashed.
"The managers at the company took the easy way out," said Khan's attorney Patrick Walsh. "They went with the status quo and bowed to the majority."
Walsh said that when Khan applied for unemployment, the company claimed that Khan was fired, but that when Khan filed suit, the company claimed that Khan quit.
The suit also alleges that the company destroyed video footage requested by attorneys that shows Khan in the incident behind the bar that led to Khan's termination.
Matthew Dattilo, the attorney for Mac One Midway, said that company policy is not to comment on pending litigation.