A former server at a Gibsons, B.C. restaurant has been awarded $30,000 after a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal decision found they were unfairly terminated for asking management and co-workers to call them by their proper pronouns.

The decision, by the tribunal’s Devyn Cousineau, found that Jessie Nelson, a non‐binary, gender fluid, transgender person who uses they/them pronouns, was terminated because of “how they responded to discrimination” from their employer and a colleague.

In 2019, Nelson was hired as a server at Buono Osteria, a restaurant run by Michael Buono and Ryan Kingsberry in Gibsons, on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast. The 42-page decision describes a work environment where some colleagues respected Nelson’s