Trans woman sues Hooters after they 'refused to hire her'

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 at the restaurant, famed for its scantily clad waitresses, on Wolf Road in Colonie, a suburb of Albany in New York. 

With career aspirations of working for the chain, Livingston had applied three times for listings which were all unsuccessful, according to her. 

Speaking with News10, Livingston 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 he.'

On her being denied employment, she added: 'I said, do you want to see my experience or anything? Because I had previous jobs I had written down. 

'And he said, “Oh, we don’t care about experience. We hire on the basis of personality. And there’s an image that needs to be met".'

Livingston said that she had also heard employees and a manager at the restaurant harass her about using their restroom. 

She claimed: 'I overheard one of the servers after I left the restroom talking to one of the managers and said that, "Why are you allowing him in the women’s restroom?"

'And the manager said, "Oh, I don’t like it any more than you do".' 

Livingston filed a claim with the New York State Division of Human Rights who investigated, and found evidence her rights may have been violated. 

Hooters has since hit back at the claims, saying that Livingston had been told not to return to the establishment over alleged offensive behavior. 

Their lawyers said that Livingston allegedly made sexually explicit comments to servers on multiple occasions prior to her transitioning. 

News10 reporter James De La Fuente questioned Livingston over this, saying the chain had accused her asking servers to marry her, and discussing masturbation. 

The company also said she had threatened 'to go to a gun range for practice for the next time you came to the restaurant'. 

Livingston told the outlet that: 'That I never said anything about. My mom would take me to the gun range and for clay pigeon shooting, trap. 

'I feel like one of the servers might have overheard what me and my dad were talking about and misunderstood what we were talking about.'

Due to the findings by the state Division of Human Rights, Hooters and Livingston will attend a hearing next September. 

Livingston told the outlet that she does not want money over her claims, adding: 'What I really want, is an apology. I’m never going to get that.'

DailyMail.com has approached Hooters for comment.