A transsexual was hounded out of his council job when he changed his name from Andrea to Andy, a tribunal heard.

Andy Baldwin claims he was forced to resign from his job as co-ordinator of Brighton and Hove's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) safety forum because of sexual discrimination.

Yesterday, Mr Baldwin, 34, accused senior figures at Brighton and Hove City Council and prominent members of the city's gay community of transphobia - fear of transsexuals.

The accusation will send shock waves through an authority often lauded for its leading role in promoting a progressive approach to issues of sexuality and gender in Britain's gay capital.

The employment tribunal in Brighton was told the council was steeped in a culture of bigotry and discrimination against transsexuals.

It was also told leading members of the forum, set up in 1998 as a multi-agency response to the under-reporting of gay hate crime, were guilty of transphobia.

Mr Baldwin, sporting a beard which is the result of monthly hormone injections that have also lowered the pitch of his voice, said colleagues became suspicious and uneasy when he started living as a man in 2002.

He told the tribunal he became the victim of a whispering campaign and a conspiracy by his line manager Linda Beanlands, the council's community safety manager, and Anthea Ballam, who chaired the safety forum.

James Ledward, a prominent member of the gay community and editor of G-Scene magazine, told Mr Baldwin the two were plotting to oust him and were bad-mouthing him in the city's gay bars, the tribunal heard.

Mr Baldwin, a trustee of LGBT umbrella organisation Spectrum, said: "Anthea Ballam had been calling me objectionable and incompetent. I was told she said she would rather be dead than let me carry on as co-ordinator."

He said a transsexual friend of his had been evicted by gay clergyman David Miller, who succeeded Ms Ballam as chairman of the now-defunct safety forum.

Mr Baldwin said his friend had told him: "In his eyes, I was nothing more than a man dressed up as a woman."

Mr Baldwin taped a telephone conversation between his friend and Mr Miller, in which the clergyman allegedly said: "I do not think that being treated as a transsexual can be regarded as normal."

Mr Baldwin, who gave a post office box address to the tribunal for fear of transphobic attacks, said he was categorised as "one of those difficult gay people" soon after getting the job in 2000.

He claims the council paid lip-service to LGBT issues but did not do all it said it would.

He said he came up against "resistance, disinterest, inaction and bigotry" at the council, which prevented him performing his role effectively.

Mr Baldwin also alleges complaints he made about Linda Beanlands were not dealt with correctly under the council's grievance procedures.

He told the tribunal that the council failed to honour a commitment to take into account some 190 hours of overtime he worked and failed to honour a pay rise he had been led to believe was a formality.

Mr Baldwin said: "I believe it was designed as a deliberate attempt to disadvantage and intimidate me."

He claims he was forced to resign in January 2003 and is now on incapacity benefits for stress and depression.

He started receiving hormone treatment in 2002 and picked up his new passport in the name of Andy.

The hearing is scheduled to last for two weeks.