Mr. C’s lawyer, Huang Sha, said he was able to establish a labor relationship at the hearing on Monday even though no contract had been signed, because Mr. C had kept a recording of his conversation with Ms. Jin from when he was fired and because the company had admitted to the hiring at a mediation session in late March.

“The reason they provided for firing Mr. C, which was his gender expression, is not included in the list of reasons for dismissal in China’s labor law,” Mr. Huang said.

Mr. C has asked for a week’s wages and an extra month’s salary, which would total about 2,000 renminbi, or about $300, Mr. Huang said. Mr. C said he was also hoping that the company would offer a written apology, although a labor arbitration panel does not have the power to order that. Mr. C said he planned to bring the case to court if the company refused to apologize.

Mr. Huang said although the company said it had dismissed Mr. C for incompetence, it provided no evidence to support this assertion. He said the company also said Mr. C had failed to wear its uniform, but later said uniforms were provided only to employees who had completed their probation periods.

A woman who answered the phone at Ms. Jin’s office on Monday afternoon said that Ms. Jin had gone out and that it was unclear when she would return.

Mr. C, a journalism graduate who has run a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender support group for nine years, said he had heard of job discrimination but had never expected to experience it.

Before the job at Ciming, he said, he had interned at a television station and worked for an insurance company and in direct sales without encountering any prejudice. But his dismissal from Ciming shattered his self-esteem, he said, and he began volunteering information about his transgender identity in job interviews to avoid later misunderstandings.