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Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Where Identity Meets Precedent: The EEOC Addresses Bathroom and Locker Room Access Under Title VII - The National Law Review

Key Highlights

  • The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has held Title VII permits federal agencies to maintain single-sex bathrooms/locker rooms and exclude transgender employees from opposite-sex facilities.
  • While the decision applies only to the federal sector, it provides a roadmap for how the EEOC may analyze bathroom/locker room issues post-Bostock.

Six years after the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County reshaped Title VII, the EEOC has addressed an unanswered question from that decision: whether Title VII requires a federal agency to allow a transgender employee to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with the employee’s gender identity. Selina S. v. Daniel Driscoll, Secretary, Department of the Army, EEOC Appeal No. 2025003976 (Feb. 26, 2026).

Inside the EEOC’s Holding

The case involves a civilian employed by the U.S. Army who had used male-designated restrooms and locker rooms without issue. In 2025, the complainant informed management that he identified as a woman and requested access to female-designated facilities. The agency denied the request based on guidance requiring sex-based designation of “intimate spaces.”

The EEOC framed the appeal as presenting an issue not “authoritatively addressed” — whether Title VII’s prohibition on discrimination “because of sex” extends to access to sex-designated bathrooms and locker rooms. The analysis relied heavily on Bostock, which held that firing (or refusing to hire) someone “simply...



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