A transgender woman who worked for Burlington Coat Factory in San Francisco is claiming she endured years of sexual harassment and discrimination on the job.

The Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of Maya Rose Perez, 42, in San Francisco Superior Court on Tuesday, February 24.

According to Elizabeth Kristen, staff attorney for the center, Perez began to transition in 2000 and officially began presenting as a woman at work in 2001, when she had been at Burlington's San Francisco store for five years.

A statement from the center said that throughout the next seven years, "Burlington's management fostered an environment that was openly hostile" to Perez.

Supervisors "subjected her to graphic sexualized conversations" and one "presented her with pornography." In addition, "co-workers grabbed and touched her breasts, buttocks, and genitals; and customers were allowed to physically and verbally assault her," according to the statement.

Perez told the Bay Area Reporter customers physically threatened her, said things like, "You ain't a woman, bitch" and "You need to go put on some more make-up" and called her "he/she" in front of management.

The complaint against Burlington Coat Factory of California LLC, says that managers and security personnel failed to intervene on more than one occasion.

"It seemed as if their attitude was that it was okay for me to be treated that way because I am a transgender person," said Perez in the statement. "No other employee was treated the way that I was."

Perez said in the statement that one of her supervisors had kept encouraging her to transition, "but then when I talked to senior Burlington management about it, I was told that it was wrong."

She told the B.A.R. that at one point, senior management tried to dissuade her from dressing in her "chosen garments," after her hormone therapy had started but before she had surgery.

A regional Burlington Coat Factory official did not respond to a request for comment.

Perez, who was the store's senior men's associate, told the B.A.R. that she'd remained at the store despite the treatment because she'd believed it would be a good place for her to transition.

It was "almost like an extended family," she said. She had hoped the company "would eventually see what the right thing was to do, and do it."

The experience has been "horrifying and humiliating," said Perez.

Kristen said that Perez was terminated from Burlington in January. "We believe that the termination was retaliatory," she wrote in an e-mail. According to the complaint, Perez was issued a notice of right-to-sue by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing in April 2008.

Perez, who was known as Steven Wicks-Perez before her transition, said that by taking action she's "Looking for everything that I can do to help dissuade the company from treating people in the same manner in the future."

The statement said that Perez and her attorneys also hope their suit "will help raise awareness both about the challenges faced by transgender individuals in the workplace and about employers' duties to prevent such abuse and protect their employees when it does occur."

Kristen said they're seeking compensation for lost wages and emotional distress, and attorneys' fees and costs in the complaint, without specifying a dollar amount.

Perez, who lives in San Francisco, said that she's trying to get unemployment while looking for another job.