A trans-identified male and former drag queen residing in Berlin is currently involved in litigation against McDonald’s after alleging he was denied access to the changing room intended for female employees. Kylie Divon, 27, also known as Keil Li, is seeking financial compensation for “discrimination” after a Muslim woman and colleague told him to leave the women’s changing room, citing his male genitalia as a cause for her concern.
Divon, who is originally from Libya, has been living in Germany for the past seven years and began working at the McDonald’s in Berlin’s central station four years ago.
Leading up to the incident, Divon had been performing drag shows on weekends at SchwuZ Queer Club. In 2020, Divon told his employer that he wanted to be addressed as “Kylie” while working. In 2023, he requested to wear a women’s uniform going forward, stating that he was “a woman from now on.”
However, during court proceedings this week, the legal representative for McDonald’s told the Berlin court that Divon had never announced his newly-chosen identity to management.
For five months, the court heard, Divon used the women’s locker room until in December, a fellow employee, identified only as Ms. M, asked him to leave and to avoid using the women’s changing area in the future.
During a conciliatory hearing between Divon and McDonald’s management, both parties refused to reach an agreement. The company offered the plaintiff a three-months’ severance payment of €8,000 because he had consistently stopped showing up for work since the incident in December. Divon had taken sick leave, claiming to be the victim of “bullying” so severe that he “even had to take sleeping pills”.
Yet Divon insists that he wants to continue working in the branch where he is still employed and to use the women’s changing room. As Divon is now alleging he was the victim of discrimination, McDonald’s has withdrawn the settlement offer, stating that the discrimination claims were “false allegations by the plaintiff.”
The company argued in their defense that supervisors had not made any discriminatory statements, but rather had sought to speak to Divon on multiple occasions. In this context a payment would indicate an admission of guilt, McDonald’s attorneys argued.
On June 24, the day before the case was scheduled to be heard for the first time at Berlin Labor Court, queer magazine Siegessaeule published a sympathetic interview with Divon. According to him, the colleague who asked him to leave the women’s changing room was a Muslim woman who told him that he was “biologically seen as a man” – a statement that he alleges is discriminatory.
In the interview, Divon revealed that during discussions with the McDonald’s legal team, he attempted to “explain” to the attorneys that women are not “real.”
“I even tried to explain what a woman is: woman is included and means trans* and cis, all varieties of women,” Divon said. “There is no ‘lesser’ or ‘real.’ They still did not understand this.”
“I will go back into the women’s dressing area. But I hope McDonald’s has learned. By the way, there are not only males and women, but also non-binary people or other genders. Unisex dressings would be best,” he added.
Divon’s lawyer, Leonie Thum, said during proceedings, “According to European law, a trans woman is a woman and must be treated as such.” Thum also accused McDonald’s of a breach of duty of care, and argued that “supervisors should be trained appropriately so as not to behave in discriminatory ways.”
The representation for McDonald’s, Monika Zehetmair, refuted the claim and stated that “other employees feel disturbed,” highlighting the Muslim background of the woman who complained about Divon’s presence in the changing room.
Divon is seeking financial compensation and a formal apology. “I am suing for compensation – the punishment should also help McDonald’s put an end to such discriminatory practices,” he told Bild.
A spokesperson for McDonald’s told the news outlet: “The restaurant management tried to respond to the needs and suggested various solutions – such as using its own lockable changing room. However, this was rejected.”
Divon, who has claimed to have fabricated his surname as a portmanteau of ‘diva’ and ‘divan,’ actively promotes himself across social media platforms. Curiously, the day before his court appearance, Divon released a music video featuring himself in an apparent attempt to capitalize on the news of his lawsuit.
On March 9, Divon took to Instagram to complain about his experience at a Women’s Day demonstration, which is recognized internationally on May 8. “There were women in the street with signs, and I was just walking, feeling good, like, oh my god, it’s our day, amazing! When you feel good about yourself and feel happy and feel beautiful, you walk with a smile on your face,” he said.
“I got reactions from cis women looking at me like, ‘Why am I there?’ I don’t need you to tell me if I’m a woman or not. I got a b*tch that turned her eyes into a scanner… and the only creatures that were actually smiling at me back were men.”
On May 19, he posted a video to TikTok discussing a recent trip he took to Belgium, where he had been invited by the European Commission as a representative for drag event organizers Queens Against Borders.
The Belgian presidency of the Council of the EU hosted the Conference ‘Pride Alliances and Policy: Towards a Union of Equality’ on May 17 at the Residence Palace in Brussels, where, in footage shot by Divon, drag performances were also held. Also in attendance was Sven Lehmann, Germany’s Commissioner for the Acceptance of Sexual and Gender Diversity (also known colloquially as the “Queer Commissioner”).
At the European Commission’s conference, Lehmann praised the passage of Germany’s Self-Determination Act (SBGG) – one of the world’s most far-reaching sex self-determination policies – which establishes ‘gender identity’ as a protected characteristic and allows parents to change the sex marker on their children’s documents from birth.
“In April, Germany finally after two years of horrifying and very aggressive debates, finally passed the Self-Determination Act, which will allow trans and inter and non-binary people to go to the registry office and say, ‘This is my first name, this is my gender entry,’ without psychological or medical assessments, without legal procedures… I’m very proud of this,” Lehmann said.
The SBGG also creates the potential for citizens to be fined up to €10,000 (approx. $10,800 USD) for revealing a person’s given name and birth sex without their permission – an action that trans activists staunchly oppose and refer to as ‘deadnaming.’
In the video shared to his social media, Divon appears ecstatic about the SBGG, which will soon come into effect in the nation.
“We can now change our gender markers and names starting from November, but you can already apply for that in August,” he instructs his viewers.
Lehmann was one of the most vocal supporters of the SBGG. He has previously drawn criticism for confessing in an interview for Queer.de to using the application Grindr during meetings in Parliament, and justifying this by stating, “Grindr is also work.” In response to public outcry, Lehmann took to Instagram to denounce critics as “TERFs” – an acronym which means “trans-exclusionary radical feminists,” and is applied broadly to any woman critical of gender identity ideology, often used alongside threats of violence.
Through his role as State Secretary of the Family Ministry (BMFSFJ), Lehmann has secured public funding for Lambda Bundesverband, an organization that provides youth sexuality counseling services, workshops, and summer camps. Lambda also publishes a magazine titled “Out!“ which is co-designed with the input of, and aimed at, youth as young as 14 years of age, and has promoted various fetishes, including bondage, voyeurism and exhibitionism, medical play, and age fetishes.
Divon’s lawsuit against McDonald’s is the second widely-publicized case of a man leveraging legal ‘gender identity’ protections in a bid to access a space where women undress. Nicolas Holstein, 25, who uses the feminine name “Laura Hannah,” is suing a women-only fitness center in Bavaria, requesting for €2,500 in compensation for “personal injury suffered” after he was denied access to the women’s showers.
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