A 27-year-old Libyan, known by his artistic name “Kylie Devon”, and the fast-food chain McDonald’s have reached an agreement at the Berlin Labor Court to end the employment contract with immediate termination and a severance package. The 27-year-old, who arrived in Germany as a refugee in 2017 and has been demanding to be treated as a woman since 2020, but has not yet undergone any changes to his identity documents or gender markers, had accused his employer of discrimination.
According to a report by the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), a older Muslim colleague allegedly denied him access to the women’s changing room in December 2023, saying it was not about how he looked “up there” but about what was “down there”. The management had not adequately supported him, explaining that they had to respect the feelings of other employees.
McDonald’s, however, countered this by stating that the store manager had indeed made suggestions for a solution, even offering a separate changing room for him. Since December 2023, Devon has been on sick leave due to “mobbing”, which did not stop him from posting a video of a trip to Brussels in May 2024, where he claimed to have been invited by the European Commission as a representative of “Queens against Borders” to represent the Arabic “Trans-Community”.
The case at the labor court was initiated by Devon, who sued McDonald’s for discrimination. The presiding judge, Kerstin Miehe, was reportedly sympathetic to his cause, stating that if someone indeed identifies as a woman, then any denial of that identity is a discriminatory statement, and that is not a question.
However, the judge did not award compensation for the alleged discrimination, as the law requires proof of a hostile work environment. The judge also did not consider the original claim for damages, as the self-determination law, which allows for the willful determination of one’s own gender, was only passed in April 2024, months after the alleged incident.
The representative of McDonald’s presented a different version of the events, stating that an agreement had been reached that everyone would knock before entering the changing room, and that Devon had always stated he felt comfortable. However, he suddenly made demands, including a claim for €800,000 for an apartment, which was later reduced to €200,000, but ultimately the negotiations were broken off.
Devon’s lawyer countered by saying that the PR department of the company had repeatedly tried to win him over for a promotional video, in which Muslim and trans employees of the fast-food chain would be shown happily changing in the dressing room..
McDonald’s had in recent years emphasized its “woke” nature and had offered special menus for Pride days. Devon, on the other hand, has been trying to make a business out of his transgender identity with music videos. It seems that the company is now starting to distance itself from supporting transgenders.
Devon can at least not be accused of lacking business sense; another judge might have seen an attempt at extortion in a similar constellation. He left the court with a severance package of €16,500, a common solution when a company wants to get rid of an employee, but the legal preconditions for a dismissal (like a warning) are not met. The general rule for severance packages is half a month’s salary per year of employment; Devon had been employed by McDonald’s since 2019. While this severance package is likely a bit above the double of the general rule, both parties have ultimately come out well. The marketing, which the business-savvy Libyan received in this way, is worth much more.