Transgender 'man' sues after being fired as male urine test observer

El'Jai Devoureau, 39, said Urban Treatment Associates questioned him about his gender a day after he started working in the position, which had been open only to male candidates.

"Is El'Jai a male? The employer says no, and El'Jai says he is," said Michael Silverman of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York, which filed the lawsuit Friday. "He's undergone hormone treatment and surgery."

The case challenges an employer's right to eliminate transgender candidates for positions that the law says may be gender-specific. Silverman said he was unaware of any previous transgender-discrimination case that addressed the issue.

When his employer asked about his gender after he began work, Devoureau responded, "I am a man, and I can do the job. They said, 'You're fired,' " he said during an interview Monday.

According to the lawsuit, Devoureau, of Gloucester County, was hired in June to observe men depositing urine in cups for drug analysis. The supervision is to assure that the sample is fresh and not from a different person.