The Times on Sunday, May 28 2006
Ali called me on Saturday night after reading the Guardian article. He sounded like the nicest of blokes. That should have tipped me off right there. He said he wanted to check a few facts with me before he wrote his own story on my discrimination case. I thought, "what's the harm?", and answered a few of his questions. Ali ended up calling me back three more times. Funny thing is, all he really needed to do was scrape the underside of a toilet seat, considering all the crap he wrote.
After reading Ali's "story", I was so pissed off that I filed a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission.
The really ironic thing is that if I came across an "Ali Hussain" getting his ass kicked by a group of neo-nazis, I'd be the first one to jump into the frey to his defense. Even though Ali has proved himself to be an ass, I'd still jump in the frey. Even assholes deserve their basic civil rights...
You can find the full text of Ali's main story below. Additionally, if you would like to see a scanned file of the full article, you can download a PDF version here. Please note that the PDF file is 2M in size, and is far too big to download if you are using a dial-up connection.
This story and associated photos © Copyright 2006 by Ali Hussain for the Times on Sunday.
Transsexual who fled to Britain sues for £500,000
Ali Hussain
A TRANSSEXUAL who moved to the UK because he feared persecution in his home town in America is seeking £500,000 compensation from his former British employers.
He says he was demoted in Britain after he underwent surgery to “feminise” his face and breasts.
Josh Bussert, 41, who now calls himself Jessica, is claiming for sex discrimination and victimisation against Hitachi Data Systems on the grounds that he was demoted from a senior information technology job.
“I am not a slacker,” said Bussert. “I’m a hard worker and my change of sex does not affect my performance.”
He is claiming £500,000 compensation in Britain in what is thought to be the largest discrimination claim to be launched over a sex change. The claim is expected to go to an employment tribunal within three months.
Bussert, who transferred from the American branch of the same technology firm two years ago, is also pursuing £2m damages against the company in a parallel claim in the US.
He earned £88,000 last year and moved to west London with his wife Sharon in April 2004 before starting his sex change.
In October 2004, physical changes due to hormone therapy, electrolysis to remove facial and body hair, and growing his hair longer, put pressure on him to reveal his new status as a “she”. He is yet to have genital surgery.
He claims his boss, Steve Larkin, said he did not want any of “these people” working for him when Bussert broached the subject light-heartedly.
A European Court of Justice ruling 10 years ago made it unlawful to discriminate against transsexuals at work. The Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999 indicate that this covers employees who intend to undergo “gender reassignment” as well as those who have done so. There is no cap on damages that tribunals can award.
The Busserts formerly lived in Indiana. They lived with two of his three children from his first marriage and two girls the couple adopted from Haiti 12 years ago.
The couple, who have been married 18 years and say they are now closer than ever, moved to Britain believing it to be a more tolerant society.
Life in Indiana had become difficult when Bussert decided to change gender. A 19-year-old transsexual who was known to Bussert was murdered and set on fire. “That’s the kind of environment we were worried about,” he says.
Bussert had started working for Hitachi in the US in January 2001. At the end of 2003 he was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a condition in which a person’s sex is at odds with his or her psychological gender. Bussert remembers wanting to be a girl from the age of four.
In April 2004, the couple moved to London and Bussert started work as principal consultant for European services.
Relations with Larkin, his new boss, started well, but in July 2004, on a business trip to Hamburg, Bussert told him jokingly he was thinking of a sex change.
He says Larkin replied: “Don’t do that to me, Josh. I had to work in an office with someone who did that once and it was weird.” Bussert says he then told Larkin he was joking. He claims Larkin replied: “That’s good because it would be too strange. Don’t ever do that to me.”
In 2004, he says, Larkin went over his head to make substantial changes to business agreements he had reached, destroying his credibility with colleagues. He says he was experiencing stress and decided to tell a human resources director, who seemed supportive.
Bussert said that after facial feminisation and breast surgery in America in March 2005 he took six weeks’ sick leave, out of the six months to which he was entitled.
He claims he was then effectively demoted. Although his salary remained the same — £88,000 a year — he no longer reported to Larkin but to a colleague who had been hired as his equal a few months earlier.
Two days after filing a discrimination claim with Hitachi last September, he says he had an appraisal with Larkin which he found so distressing he “went to the rest room and was physically ill”.
He went on sick leave claiming “stress causing clinical depression, with anxiety and panic disorder”. He says he returned to work in December but the company “made it difficult”. He returned to sick leave and Hitachi stopped paying him in February.
According to Bussert, Hitachi claims he was not demoted but colleagues were promoted.
A spokeswoman for Hitachi UK said: “We don’t think it’s appropriate to comment, other than to say that we deny those allegations and will be defending them to the full extent.”
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