Acting head of US employment rights agency failing to protect trans and nonbinary workers, Democrats say
Source: The Guardian
Fri 13 Jun 2025 11.05 EDT
Last modified on Fri 13 Jun 2025 11.57 EDT
Democrats are demanding the acting chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforce civil rights protections for transgender and nonbinary people. A letter to Andrea Lucas, a copy of which was viewed by the Guardian, alleges the agency has “abdicated this responsibility under the law when it comes to transgender and nonbinary workers”.
The letter cites that shortly after Lucas’s appointment as acting chair of the EEOC in January 2025, Lucas instructed the agency to halt the processing of claims related to gender identity discrimination, and that in April 2025 the agency instructed all employees to classify gender identity discrimination complaints as its lowest priority.
“A categorization reserved for meritless charges – which essentially puts the processing of such complaints in an indefinite hold,” the letter states. The letter also notes the EEOC moved to dismiss six cases the agency had previously pursued against employers accused of gender identity discrimination, including EEOC v Boxwood Hotels, a lawsuit in which the employer is alleged to have fired a transgender employee after the employee’s manager repeatedly misgendered the employee and referred to them as “it”.
Signers of the letter include 70 members of Congress, led by Congressman Mark Takano, Robert C “Bobby” Scott and Suzanne Bonamici. The letter comes as state legislatures in the US introduced over 530 bills targeting LGBTQ+ people in 2024.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/13/us-employment-agency-trans-nonbinary-workers
Link to LETTER (PDF) - https://democrats-edworkforce.house.gov/imo/media/doc/house_democrats_letter_to_eeoc_acting_chair_lucas_re_gender_discrimination_claims.pdf