New EEOC Policy Pre-Designates All Transgender Cases as "Meritless"

Andrea R. Lucas, Trump installed EEOC Acting Chair / @andrealucasEEOC

The federal agency tasked with protecting workers’ civil rights is classifying all new gender identity-related discrimination cases as its lowest priority, essentially putting them on indefinite hold, according to two agency employees who spoke with the AP.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a meeting on Wednesday clarifying how it would treat new worker complaints of gender-identity discrimination in view of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order declaring that the government would recognize only two “immutable” sexes — male and female, the AP reports.

Staff who handle incoming charges, or intakes, were directed to code them as “C,” the lowest categorization in the EEOC’s system, which is usually reserved for meritless charges.

“Since Day One, President Trump has been undermining civil rights enforcement for American workers, from rescinding a 60-year-old civil rights era Executive Order that prohibited discrimination in federal contracting to unlawfully firing two commissioners on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,” said Rep. Mark Takano (CA-39), Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus. “As part of Trump’s campaign to weaponize of the federal government against minorities, including transgender people, the White House has directed federal agencies to go after private employers who work to address historic discrimination in their fields. Now, agencies like the EEOC are following Trump’s lead and have stopped processing all sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination complaints.

The EEOC’s new policy regarding gender-identity-related discrimination contradicts the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, a landmark case that established that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits workplace discrimination based on gender identity.

Judge Rules Against Maine Lawmaker Who Posted Pictures of a Transgender Minor

A federal court has ruled against a Republican lawmaker from Maine who sued the state’s Democratic House speaker after being censured for a social media post about a transgender athlete.

Rep. Laurel Libby posted about a high school athlete, a minor, who won a girls’ track competition. Libby included a photo of the student and identified them by first name, with the name in quotation marks, saying they previously competed in boys’ track.

The censure reportedly disallows Libby from debating and voting on House matters.

U.S. District Court Judge Melissa DuBose on Friday ruled against Libby’s request for a preliminary injunction to prevent the sanction, the AP Reports.

DuBose said the imposition of the sanction “is not of such extraordinary character as to obliterate the formidable shield the courts have provided to legislative acts.”