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Friday, July 17. 2026
Chili’s says Louisiana worker was fired for ‘harassment,’ employee says it stemmed from pronoun dispute
A former Louisiana Chili’s employee went viral for saying he was fired for refusing to use a coworker’s preferred pronouns, but the restaurant claims the termination stemmed from repeated harassment that violated company policy, not the employee’s views on gender identity.
The former employee, Wesley Kirk Ford Jr., alleged on social media on Saturday that he lost his job after referring to a nonbinary coworker “by her actual legal government name.”
Chili’s disputes that characterization, saying Ford repeatedly mocked and intimidated the coworker despite being asked to stop.
“While we normally do not comment on people-related matters, we believe it is important to clarify the actions taken in this situation,” a spokesperson for Chili’s told Fox News Digital. “The individual was terminated due to repeated instances of harassment toward his fellow team member, which is in violation of our policies, to the point the team member was unable to continue the shift. The terminated individual was repeatedly asked to stop the harassing behavior, but he refused.”
In a video posted Saturday, Ford said he was fired for refusing to call the coworker not by her name, but by her “chosen name,” which he said was “Fish.” He said he’d never been fired or even disciplined at any job before.
“I’m not participating in that s— anymore,” Ford said in the video. “Like, I don’t care. I don’t care, I put my foot down. And I’m just not, I’m not participating in it.”
In my opinion, and clearly by Mr. Ford’s remarks in his video, he said, ‘I’m not participating in that s— anymore’, and also, ‘Like, I don’t care’, ‘I’m just not participating in it’, it doesn’t sound like he was harassing this mentally ill worker. He simply wasn’t feeding into the mental illness. I’d bet Chili’s is just woke. We see it all the time. I don’t know if there’s some kind of book we’re supposed to study to be able to keep up with all these different pronouns these homosexuals have to call themselves, but count me out as well. I call it like it is, and I refuse to play into someones mental illness. It’s fair to them, and it surely isn’t fair to me. There is no other mental illness in the world that we are supposed to play into because it only harms the mentally ill person. Up until 1972 or ’73, homosexuality was labeled as a mental illness. Why it changed? I have no idea, but if you don’t believe it’s a mental illness, watch a Pride parade!