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A lawsuit filed Wednesday takes aim at the federal government over transgender workplace rights
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A legal advocacy group says the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is shutting out transgender workers from protections on the job
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Democracy Forward filed the lawsuit after the EEOC began rolling back enforcement of
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gender identity claims in January. The move came after an executive order from President Trump
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directing agencies to apply laws based on biological sex, not gender identity. The EEOC
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investigates workplace discrimination for private employers and refers some cases to the Justice
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Department. According to the lawsuit, the EEOC is now refusing to process many claims filed by
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transgender employees, including cases involving harassment and violence. Democracy Forward calls it the trans exclusion policy, saying it violates civil rights law, the Fifth Amendment, and a 2020
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Supreme Court ruling known as Bostock. That decision said workers can't be fired for being
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transgender or gay, but the EEOC argues Bostock didn't cover issues like bathroom access or
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harassment. In a July email reported by the Washington Post, an EEOC official told staff
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to only move forward with cases directly tied to hiring or firing, not harassment claims based
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on gender identity. Acting Chair Andrea Lucas has defended the policy as a return to biological
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definitions of sex in federal law. The EEOC maintains it's following the text of existing
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law saying not every gender identity claim is covered under current civil rights statutes
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For Straight Hour News, I'm Kaylee Carey. Find the full story right now on the Straight Hour News mobile app or head to san.com
