Democracy Forward and the National Women’s Law Center filed suit Tuesday, July 29, on behalf of FreeState Justice, against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and its acting chair, Andrea Lucas.
The lawsuit, according to a Democracy Forward press release, “challenges the EEOC’s sweeping policy of refusing to enforce federal workplace protections for transgender workers,” a policy that “marks a sharp break from decades of EEOC practice and violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Fifth Amendment’s Equal Protection guarantee, the Administrative Procedure Act and the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County.
The lawsuit comes in response to directives issued by the Trump-Vance administration including Executive Order 14168 which redefines federal policy to recognize only two sexes and strips away protections for transgender people across the federal government, the press release notes. Since January, the EEOC has dismissed or halted at least seven active lawsuits involving transgender and non-binary workers, stopped processing complaints and instructed staff to classify gender identity claims as meritless.
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said, “For more than 60 years, the EEOC’s mandate has been to protect workers from discrimination, not to pick and choose who is deemed worthy of protection based on political interference. The Trump-Vance administration’s unlawful effort to erase protections for transgender people is cruel, and a violation of the law and the Constitution.
“We are honored to be alongside our partners and clients to hold this administration accountable and ensure every worker is protected under the law,” Perryman added.
— Tammye Nash