A Hooters restaurant in Upstate New York is embroiled in a war of words with a local transgender woman who has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the eatery after it refused to hire her following a recent transition from male to female.

Brandy Livingston says she’s been a regular at the Hooter’s restaurant in Colonie, New York for years. However, according to a report from NEWS10, once she switched genders, she was treated like an outcast.

“I’m suing Hooters for sex-based discrimination, on the basis of accommodation and on the basis of employment,” said Ms. Livingston. “They would use male pronouns. They would refer to me as ‘he.’”

After the transition, Ms. Livingston alleges, she applied for a job three times but was turned down.

“I said, ‘Do you want to see my experience or anything? Because I had previous jobs I had written down,” she recalled. “And he said, ‘Oh, we don’t care about experience. We hire on the basis of personality. And there’s an image that needs to be met.'”

Owners of the local franchise have refuted Ms. Livingston’s claims, alleging that she had repeatedly made lewd comments to servers when she was still a man, making them uncomfortable with comments about marrying them and openly discussing masturbation. The owners also claim that Ms. Livingston also threatened to go practice at the gun range before her next visit to the restaurant.

“My mom would take me to the gun range and for clay pigeon shooting, trap. I feel like one of the servers might have overheard what me and my dad were talking about and misunderstood what we were talking about,” she said.

Ms. Livingston has filed a claim with the New York State Division of Human Rights, which says it found sufficient evidence that her rights were likely violated and will hold a hearing on the case next September.

She says she is not looking for a payout. “What I really want is an apology.”