Starbucks managers accused of misgendering non-binary worker and telling them to ‘man up’

Shift supervisor ‘began humiliating and yelling at Plaintiff about their gender identity in front of the entire staff,’ lawsuit says

A non-binary former barista at Starbucks has sued the coffee chain after managers allegedly misgendered them on numerous occasions, including telling the barista to “man up”.

The lawsuit was filed in Illinois on 9 November and states that Brie Boyle was “subjected to a continuing pattern of sexual harassment and gender discrimination” at the hands of two managers during their time at the coffee shop.

When Boyle complained about the treatment, they were reportedly told to “man up”. The legal filing also states that a shift supervisor pushed Boyle and that they were wrongly terminated.

“The claims made in this lawsuit lack merit and we intend to defend our case vigorously,” a Starbucks spokesperson told The Independent.

“We pride ourselves in creating a welcoming environment where everyone in our community, partners (employees) and customers can bring their whole selves to work and have no tolerance for discrimination of any kind,” the spokesperson added.

The court document reveals that Boyle started working at a Starbucks coffee shop in September 2019 in Homewood, about 20 miles south of Chicago. Two months after starting the job, Boyle told co-workers and managers that “they were in the process of transitioning from male to non-binary gender status for several months and wished to be recognized as non-binary”, according to the lawsuit.

It also said that it was around the same time that the colleagues and management at the cafe learned that Boyle was bisexual.

“From the moment information concerning Plaintiff’s gender and sexual orientation became known to their co-workers and management, Plaintiff was forced to deal with insults and mistreatment nearly every time Plaintiff worked a shift between November of 2019 and May of 2020,” the lawsuit says.

The legal filing includes claims that both the store manager and the shift supervisor continued to misgender Boyle by using male pronouns, including after the barista requested that they stop.

The lawsuit states that the shift supervisor subjected Boyle to verbal harassment “at nearly every shift they worked together” such as telling them to “man up” and that they were “too sensitive” when they complained about the supervisor’s actions.

The store manager then refused to take any action to get the harassment to end, the lawsuit alleges. It adds that the store manager and the shift supervisor ignored numerous requests from Boyle that they be moved to a different coffee shop or be given different shifts to not have to work with the shift supervisor.

The court filing also says that both the shift supervisor and the store manager told Boyle not to file formal complaints with the department of human resources at the company.

The shift supervisor “began humiliating and yelling at Plaintiff about their gender identity in front of the entire staff” on 21 May 2021, the lawsuit states. It was at this moment that she physically pushed Boyle, according to the lawsuit.

Later that same day, Boyle got in touch with the store manager to make them aware of the incident and to ask to be moved to a different store. Instead, Boyle’s was fired later that month “without any legitimate, non-pretextual reason”, according to the legal filing.

Boyle is seeking damages for lost pay and benefits, emotional pain and suffering, as well as humiliation, in addition to other things, to the tune of $100,000.

The lawsuit also seeks an injunction restraining the company “from future discriminatory actions”, the lawsuit states.