--- title: Taco John's Sued Over Teen Employee's 'Gaytard' Nametag description: A 16-year-old Taco John's employee was forced to wear a label that said "Gaytard" and is now being represented by the ACLU in a lawsuit canonical: https://time.com/3430810/taco-johns-sued-over-teen-employees-anti-gay-nametag/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-25T19:47:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:03.594Z og:title: Taco John's Sued Over Teen Employee's 'Gaytard' Nametag og:description: A 16-year-old Taco John's employee was forced to wear a label that said "Gaytard" and is now being represented by the ACLU in a lawsuit og:url: https://time.com/3430810/taco-johns-sued-over-teen-employees-anti-gay-nametag/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Taco John's Sued Over Teen Employee's 'Gaytard' Nametag twitter:description: A 16-year-old Taco John's employee was forced to wear a label that said "Gaytard" and is now being represented by the ACLU in a lawsuit twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Taco John's Sued Over Teen Employee's Anti-Gay Nametag by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Sep 25, 2014 7:47 PM UTC by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Sep 25, 2014 7:47 PM UTC A teenage former Taco John’s employee has filed suit against the fast food chain for allegedly being forced to [wear an anti-gay slur on his name tag](http://tacojohnscalledmeagaytard.com/post/98398003327/within-24-hours-since-we-launched-our-campaign), in a case that has become a viral sensation thanks to an American Civil Liberties Union campaign. Tyler Brandt, 16, said that he was required to wear a name tag labeled “GAYTARD” at the Taco John’s branch in Yankton, South Dakota where he worked, according to the ACLU. Brandt, after being repeatedly humiliated in front of customers and coworkers, finally felt that he had to quit his job. The ACLU is representing Brandt in a discrimination suit again Taco John’s. More than 32,000 people have signed an ACLU-organized petition requesting that Taco John’s apologize and speak out against workplace discrimination. Many have shared [pictures](http://tacojohnscalledmeagaytard.com/post/98157354012/tyler-hats-off-to-you-for-telling-your-story-and) [of](http://tacojohnscalledmeagaytard.com/post/97819942997/tyler-ive-been-called-midget-and-nerd-at-work) [themselves](http://tacojohnscalledmeagaytard.com/post/98154301112/i-moved-to-the-us-when-i-was-a-teen-and-high) on social media holding signs with the names of insults that have been leveled at them. “No one should have to face slurs in their workplace – no boss should be allowed to label their employee with insults,” said the ACLU in the [petition](https://www.aclu.org/secure/tyler?ms=web%5F140924%5Flgbtrights%5Ftacojohn%27s%5Ftumblr). The company addressed the alleged incident on its Facebook page: ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3430810/taco-johns-sued-over-teen-employees-anti-gay-nametag/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3430810/taco-johns-sued-over-teen-employees-anti-gay-nametag/"},"headline":"Taco John's Sued Over Teen Employee's Anti-Gay Nametag","datePublished":"2014-09-25T19:47:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:03.594Z","description":"Tyler Brandt, 16, says he was forced to wear a nametag with the word \"GAYTARD\" on it","url":"https://time.com/3430810/taco-johns-sued-over-teen-employees-anti-gay-nametag/","keywords":["Living","LGBT","sexuality"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3430810/taco-johns-sued-over-teen-employees-anti-gay-nametag/","name":"Taco John's Sued Over Teen Employee's Anti-Gay Nametag"}}]}] ```