A transsexual who claimed he was hounded out of his council job has failed in a sex discrimination claim.

Andrea Baldwin changed her name to Andy after undergoing a female to male sex change. Mr Baldwin accused Brighton and Hove City Council of discrimination but lost the case on appeal today.

Mr Baldwin claimed he was forced to resign from his £26,000-a-year job as co-ordinator of the city's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender forum after suffering a string of slurs including being labelled as "one of those difficult gay people".

The 34-year-old claimed senior council officials suffered from transphobia - fear of transsexuals.

But yesterday the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) upheld the ruling of an employment tribunal which cleared the council of discrimination.

Yesterday the city council welcomed the judgement.

A spokesperson said: "We do everything we can to make sure the council is a welcoming and supportive place to work for everyone, regardless of their sexuality."

Allegations arose after Mr Baldwin said the council grew "suspicious and uneasy" when he started living as a man in 2002 and claimed he was forced to resign from his job in January 2003 because he felt unsafe working as a transsexual.

At the original tribunal hearing Mr Baldwin, who said he'd had to resign and ended up on incapacity benefits due to stress and depression, accused the council of bigotry and paying lip-service to some issues affecting homosexuals.

He claimed he had been labelled as "one of those difficult gay people" when he got the job in 2000 along with other abuse.

He also claimed he had been the victim of a whispering campaign by Linda Beanlands, the council's safety manager, and Anthea Ballam, who chaired his safety forum.

However the council argued his line manager and senior colleagues did not know or suspect he was undergoing a sex change.

The EAT, which upheld the tribunal decision, said Mr Baldwin had suffered "no actual discrimination."

It said that as Mr Baldwin's employers had no knowledge of his transsexualism prior to his resignation, the tribunal had been entitled to dismiss his discrimination claim.

The council spokesperson said: "The support we give includes funding a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers forum, which has more than 100 members.

"Within our community safety work we also fund specialist officers who have a high level of expertise in tackling homophobic and transphobic safety issues and giving support to people who have experienced homophobia or transphobia."

Mr Baldwin was unavailable for comment yesterday.