Aimee Stephens, Respondent
John A. Knight, Counsel of Record
Aimee Stephens spent nearly 30 years working in the funeral industry. In October 2007, she took a job as funeral director and embalmer at Harris Homes, a funeral parlor company in Detroit, Michigan. At the time, Stephens presented herself to her employer as a man — the gender that had been assigned to her at birth. Six years later, well after coming out as transgender to her friends and family, Stephens informed her supervisor, Thomas Rost, that she planned to live her professional life as a woman and to have sex reassignment surgery. Two weeks later, Rost informed Stephens that her employment was being terminated because Stephens wanted to dress like a woman. Rost would subsequently say …
