In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, a former employee of New York restaurant-to-the-stars Buddakan alleges he was fired because he is HIV positive.

The New York Post reports that Jack Mountford, a 27-year-old actor-dancer who has been living with HIV since 2010, began working at Buddakan as a server in February 2013. He quickly rose up the ranks in the restaurant, ringing up $20,000 in sales on a good week.

Mountford told the Post that he disclosed his HIV status to the general manager because he occasionally needed to fly to his hometown of Orlando, Florida, to meet with his medical team. The staff was accommodating, he said, and even let him take needed breaks to inject himself in the stomach with medication.

However, after a scathing review of Buddakan appeared in Eater NY, a new general manager, Brandon Wergeles, was brought in last June. Shortly after that, Mountford told the Post, Wergeles told him he had become a liability at the company. The new general manager accused Mountford of taking an unauthorized vacation, of making a mistake on a customer’s bill and of not informing him of a health condition that could be detrimental to his job performance.

Mountford denied the allegations regarding the vacation and the bill. And with respect to his HIV? “It’s Chelsea and the Meatpacking District,” he told the Post. “I never expected to be in a position where a piece of my life that is so personal and unrelated to my job performance was thrown in my face.”

“It’s not the spread of HIV that [the] defendants should worry about,” Mountford’s lawyer told the Post, “it’s their spread of prejudice.”

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

To read POZ articles about similar cases, click #Discrimination.