The EEOC’s push to dismiss its transgender bias cases and scrutinize related charges narrows the legal pathways for workers accusing their employers of gender-identity discrimination.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently moved to drop at least seven lawsuits it filed on behalf of transgender workers. It also paused its processing of transgender bias charges and removed non-binary gender markers from intake forms to align with President Donald Trump’s executive order proclaiming that the government recognizes only two immutable sexes.
This enforcement pivot leaves gender non-conforming workers to pursue their own discrimination lawsuits or turn to the states, as they navigate the conflict between current EEOC guidance and the new administration’s hostility toward Biden-era policies.
“For the next four years, an LGBTQ person should not assume the EEOC is going to be a welcoming place for their charge,” said Chai Feldblum, a former Democratic commissioner.
The US Supreme Court’s 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County decision found that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act bars discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. It’s foundational to the EEOC’s 2024 harassment guidance, which says employers can’t misgender workers or bar them from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity.
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