Tyler Brandt is “not ashamed of being gay” and has been out to his family and friends since he was in the fifth grade. It wasn’t until this summer that the 16-year-old faced a stark, tangible act of discrimination.

Like many teenagers, Brandt had his eyes on a summer job so he could raise a little extra money for clothes, going out with friends, and maybe even saving a bit for the future. When he landed a job at the Taco John’s in Yankton, S.D., he was nothing short of excited. He worked the night shift five or six days a week for about a month.

On the night of June 23, the night manager called Brandt into his office and handed him a new name tag to wear, said the teen. The tag read “Gaytard,” with a heart on either side of the word.

“He [the manager] said, ‘Wear this!’ with a huge grin on his face, like he was really proud of himself,” Brandt said in a statement.

Afraid of losing his job, Brandt put the name tag on and was forced to wear it throughout his shift. Brandt said he tried to hide it behind the register when he was serving customers, but his manager did everything he could to call attention to the hurtful tag by saying things like “Hey, Gaytard, help this customer!” and “Take out the trash, Gaytard!”

Feeling uncomfortable with the work environment, Brandt quit the next day. He soon heard from fellow employees that his manager had been calling him derogatory terms, including “faggot,” behind his back.

On Brandt’s behalf, the ACLU on Wednesday filed a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the South Dakota Department of Labor. This is the first step in what could be a long legal process that starts with a EEOC investigation and ends several months later with a possible lawsuit against Taco John’s.

The charge, made against the franchise in question as well as Taco John’s International, Inc., states that Brandt’s manager violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as South Dakota’s own rights laws. The complaint alleges other shortcomings at Taco John's, such as failing to provide Brandt with an employee handbook or inform him of whom to contact to report discrimination.

While there are no specific federal laws that protect employees against discrimination based on gender identity or orientation, no other safeguards are in place.

“It’s really important that as we talk about the need for explicit protections for LGBT people, that we not lose sight of the protections that LGBT employees already have under Title VII,” said ACLU Attorney Joshua Block.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects citizens from employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, or sex. In Brandt’s case, it’s the latter; his manager’s slurs demonstrated “biases based on gender stereotype, sexual orientation and disability status,” according to the official charge.

Title VII has been used successfully in other LGBT discrimination cases. In Macy v. Dept. of Justice, Mia Macy was overlooked for a job at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for being a transgender woman. During the hiring process, Macy told ATF that she had been diagnosed with gender identity disorder. Soon after, she was informed that the position she had applied for had been eliminated because of budget cuts. Macy found out that the job had gone to someone else. She filed a discrimination lawsuit and won.

In Brandt’s case, Title VII was violated again, said Block. According to the discrimination charge, there were multiple occasions in which Brandt’s manager, Andrew Scott, made “unwanted, offensive remarks about his stereotyped views of Tyler’s gender mannerisms and sexual orientation.”

“This type of discrimination is illegal in all 50 states, including South Dakota,” Block said.

As further investigation into Brandt’s charges gets under way, the ACLU has launched an online petition demanding an apology from Taco John’s. It’s also started a Tumblr campaign called “Taco John’s Called me a Gaytard,” in which people can post a photo of themselves wearing their own hurtful name tag in an act of solidarity.

Taco John’s responded to initial reports of Brandt’s harassment with a public note on its Facebook page and website, which has since disappeared. In response to the discrimination charge, the original statement from Taco John’s CEO John Linville said the company owns the chain but that it was up to the franchise operator (not Taco John’s) to investigate.

“We’ve contacted the independent owner and made him aware of what is alleged to have happened and requested that he do an investigation and handle it,” Linville said.

Taco John’s is a massive chain in the Midwest and north-central U.S. There are more than 400 locations throughout 25 states, serving up tacos, burritos, and breakfast foods in the vein of restaurants such as Del Taco and Taco Bell.