What an incredibly difficult situation. I wasn’t there, but it sounds like the employee went out of their way to be rude to you. You corrected their misgendering, and they could have avoided any further offense by simply not addressing you with any gendered language.

It sounds like (after their initial, potentially innocent misgendering) they made a deliberate decision to be provocative. If that’s the case, I’m not surprised the station owner fired the employee.

People who run small businesses that serve the public don’t want their employees being rude to the public, especially on ideological grounds or something. That’s bad for business.

So maybe go a little easier on yourself? I know you didn’t want the employee fired, and I know that the firing isn’t the best possible outcome.

But from the station owner’s perspective, maybe it was just a necessary business decision?