UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. — A woman says she was illegally fired at Saginaw Valley State University after telling her bosses that she was making a transition to female from male.

Charin Davenport filed a lawsuit Friday in federal court in Detroit. She quotes a boss as saying, “You disgust me.” In 2013, she was told her job, assistant to the director of academic programs support, was being cut for financial reasons.

Davenport began working at Saginaw Valley in 2007 as an English professor. She was known then as Charles Davenport.

Saginaw Valley spokesman J.J. Boehm says the university supports all students and staff who are gay, bisexual or transgender. He predicts the university will prevail in the lawsuit when “all the facts come out.”

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