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A Maryland social justice nonprofit is suing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) over its refusal to address workplace discrimination complaints that have to do with gender identity.
Democracy Forward and the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) filed the lawsuit on behalf of FreeState Justice, alleging the agency has violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, and the Administrative Procedure Act.
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After the president signed an executive order mandating the federal government recognize there are only two immutable sexes – male and female – EEOC staff were told to relegate anti-trans discrimination cases as the lowest priority, which the Associated Press reported at the time more or less meant they were put on indefinite pause.
The lawsuit names both the EEOC as well as its acting chair, Andrea Lucas, who lists as a priority in her official bio, “defending the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights, including women’s rights to single-sex spaces.”
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The suit alleges that the EEOC’s decision to ignore cases of anti-trans discrimination is “rooted in Defendants’ animus against transgender people” and “part and parcel of this Administration’s agenda to erase and unlawfully deny protections to transgender people in the provision of government services and across all aspects of civic life.”
It also cites the Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which said that anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination violates the Civil Rights Act’s ban on discrimination on the basis of sex since a person’s sexual and gender identity is inextricably related to their sex.
“Bostock cemented protections for LGBTQ+ workers that the EEOC had already recognized for years,” the complaint states.
Earlier this month, the agency altered its exclusionary policy to allow some of the gender-identity-related cases to be considered if they “fall squarely” under the Bostock ruling, according to an email from EEOC field operations director Thomas Colclough.
The complaint addresses this change, saying that the EEOC only sees “hiring, firing, and promotion cases” as falling under this purview.
“But the EEOC has not resumed processing charges alleging other kinds of gender-identity discrimination, including harassment or retaliation faced by transgender workers,” it said, adding that it also believes the agency is also not processing “hiring, firing, or promotion charges” when they are brought “alongside excluded charges, such as harassment or retaliation.”
The suit also said gender-identity discrimination charges of any kind are still subject to heightened review by Lucas’ office, which it points out is not required for other cases invoking Title VII.
“Transgender workers deserve to be protected against harassment, and the EEOC is obligated to do so under law,” said Gaylynn Burroughs, Vice President for Education and Workplace Justice at NWLC, in a statement.
Burroughs added that this administration “seems hellbent on bullying transgender people in every possible way and ensuring that they are pushed out of all forms of public life, including their workplaces, so we’re taking the administration to court.”
“Policies like the EEOC’s undermine the law and endanger people,” added Lauren Pruitt, Legal Director at FreeState Justice. “They force LGBTQI+ people and other marginalized communities to choose between their job and being true to who they are… We are fighting back because no one should have to live in fear of discrimination or retribution just to go to work.”
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Source: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/07/civ ... ion-cases/