HADDONFIELD, New Jersey — A transsexual New Jersey man has sued the drug-treatment center where he worked, claiming it discriminated against him when it fired him from a job that only a man can do: watching men urinate.

Experts believe El’Jai Devoureau’s case is the first in the U.S. where a transgender employee has claimed an employer discriminated based on birth gender.

The question at the heart of a case is whether someone who is living as a man and recognized by the government as a man is one when it comes to employment.

Devoureau, 39, was born with female genitalia, but says in his legal complaint that he always considered himself male.