NYDailyNews.com – Jordan Lite – Daily News Staff Writer\
Before his fellow cooks discovered that he was born Erica, Eric Buffong said he was known only as the rising star in their ritzy Westchester restaurant.
But within weeks of a colleague brandishing a high school yearbook photo showing him as a woman, Buffong became a pariah in the kitchen and was swiftly fired, he said.
Now, in a landmark ruling which holds that state law protects transgendered people, a judge says Buffong can go forward with his discrimination lawsuit against Tarrytown’s Castle on the Hudson, which houses Equus, the five-star restaurant where he worked.
“Prior to that I was the chef’s No. 1 guy. Just because I was born a female and I chose to be a male, it’s a problem now?” asked Buffong, 27.