Workers’ civil rights agency to resume work on anti-trans discrimination cases after lengthy hiatus

EEOC, the agency responsible for protecting workers’ civil rights in the US, has reportedly resumed processing certain transgender discrimination cases after a previous policy from the Trump administration described such claims as “meritless”.

After Donald Trump signed an executive order proclaiming the US government would only recognise two sexes in January, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) moved to comply with the order.

The agency reportedly dismissed discrimination cases it had filed on behalf of transgender workers, and stopped processing new complaints of discrimination based on gender identity.

Now, the EEOC will resume processing those cases after a months-long pause, though transgender discrimination complaints will allegedly be subject to a heightened level of review, the Washington Post reported. The news outlet claimed it is unclear what caused the change in policy.

The EEOC had paused investigations into trans discrimination cases after Trump returned to office in January 2025, as they had been classed as “meritless”, meaning they could not proceed. The agency also reportedly dropped more than half a dozen cases it had been litigating on behalf of trans workers.

Referring to one of the cases, EEOC’s acting chair Andrea Lucas claimed it was “impossible to both comply with the president’s executive order as an executive branch agency and also zealously defend the workers we had brought the case on behalf.”

​Adam Harrison, a lawyer who represented two plaintiffs in separate cases that had been dismissed this year, told the Washington Post: “Make no mistake, transgender and non-binary people whose civil rights were violated were turned away during these last five months, and as long as that’s been happening, these people’s rights have been expiring.”

The EEOC will now reportedly process cases that “fall squarely” under the 2020 Supreme Court ruling Bostock v Clayton County, which found that firing trans workers because of their gender identity violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That includes hiring, firing and promotion cases, but reportedly does not include workplace harassment.

It was claimed that if the agency finds enough evidence that discrimination took place, gender identity cases will still be reviewed by a senior attorney as well as the office of the chair.

The EEOC said in a statement to the news outlet that it “is, has been, and will continue to accept, and serve to the relevant employer, all charges of discrimination from all charging parties.”

What does the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) do?

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the federal agency responsible for protecting workers against discrimination based on “race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, transgender status, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information”.

The agency states that the workplace discrimination laws “apply to all types of work situations, including hiring, firing, promotions, harassment, training, wages, and benefits”.

It’s function is to investigate claims of discrimination based on protected characteristics, attempt to settle workplace disputes, and when necessary, litigate cases of potential discrimination in court.

The EEOC was created in 1965, and pursued its first trans discrimination cases in 2014, when it filed two cases against separate employees that allegedly fired trans workers, one in Michigan and one in Florida, after they came out.

Reports after Donald Trump took office in January found that cases relating to workplace discrimination against trans people had been dismissed, including the case of a trans man in Alabama who was reportedly fired after coming out, according to The Guardian.

Jocelyn Samuels, an EEOC commissioner who was fired in January, told the news outlet that the Trump administration’s “efforts to erase trans people are deeply harmful to a vulnerable community and inconsistent with governing law”, and that the EEOC’s response to Trump’s executive order was “truly regrettable”.

PinkNews has contacted the EEOC for comment.

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