Former Mississippi jail guard says she was fired for being transgender

ABERDEEN, Miss. (AP) | A former jail guard in northeast Mississippi says she was fired for being transgender.

Elise Hebert says she was treated differently from other Chickasaw County jail guards, and that supervisors didn’t keep her transgender status secret despite her request.

The lawsuit, filed this month in federal court in Aberdeen, seeks back wages and damages from Chickasaw County.

Hebert says she was frequently belittled by coworkers and supervisors, including Sheriff James Meyers and Warden Brand Huffman. She says she was disciplined for incidents for which other officers weren’t punished, saying the treatment created a hostile work environment violating her civil rights. Hebert says she was fired in 2017 after her paycheck didn’t arrive on time and she couldn’t afford gasoline to drive to work.

The county has yet to respond.

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