Juliet Owen is a veteran. She served in the Marine Corps 1993-94, working in aviation electronics, until being honorably discharged after being diagnosed with chondromalacia (runner's knee). She is currently unemployed and homeless. Being a veteran she has managed to score housing in Long Beach's Villages at Cabrillo.

The reason for her jobless state is a sore point, however. Juliet has filed a wrongful termination complaint October 1 claiming gender identity discrimination against Australian Swim Schools, an Orange County swimming school with students aged three months to adult.

Owen said she had never experienced discrimination because of her transgender status until she moved from Virginia Beach, VA to southern California and began work as a swim instructor in May at Australian Swim Schools Anaheim location. After informing her boss that she is transgender, she was laid off a month later. She was told that not enough students had signed up for summer water safety classes, but when she visited the facility two weeks after her termination, she discovered three new employees.

The Australian Swim School denies any wrongdoing and believes the facts of the case will bear that out. We will comply with all state and federal laws and provide an appropriate workplace for all employees and protect the interests of the students who train at the Australian Swim School.

--attorney Jonathan Judge

Australian Swim Schools has 30 days to respond to the complaint.

I’m a human being. To treat me like this is not right. You can’t treat people like this. Just because I’m different from you doesn’t mean I can’t do my job.

--Owen

Of course, California does have legal protections from employment discrimination, along with 18 other states and the District of Columbia.

An estimated one in four transgender people has lost a job due to bias.

Transgender people have not made the same strides to equality as other members of the LGBT community. If there is any sense of justice, you should not be fired under the law for being transgender.

--Owen’s attorney, Richard Jorgensen