A bus operator was fired for FMLA falsification and claimed his employer terminated him because he was transgender. The employer’s defense was simple: it fired four other employees for the same conduct around the same time. A federal appeals court just said that’s enough.
The Supreme Court just ruled on whether transgender athletes can play girls’ high school sports. If you’re scanning this for a new Title VII rule for your LGBT employment policies, save yourself the trouble: there isn’t one.
For nearly a decade, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said denying a transgender employee access to the restroom matching that employee’s gender identity violated Title VII.
Last month, the agency reversed course.
Private employers should read the fine print before changing anything. Continue reading
Some employers try. The Fourth Circuit just explained why that trick doesn’t work for these federal discrimination claims. Continue reading
A Texas federal court has weighed in on how far the EEOC can go when interpreting Title VII.
Spoiler alert: it didn’t go well for the EEOC. Continue reading
After months of legal gridlock, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is about to get its quorum back—and a Republican majority with it. Continue reading
This week, lawmakers in both the House and Senate reintroduced the Equality Act, a bill that would explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity across numerous areas of federal law.
Although the bill has strong Democratic support, it lacks bipartisan backing—and given the political composition of Congress and the current administration’s stance, it is unlikely to become law during this session. Still, its reintroduction offers employers a timely opportunity to review existing policies and ensure compliance with current law. Continue reading
“We are terminating you for ‘denying biological and chromosomal sex assigned at birth.’” Continue reading
On Saturday, the Associated Press reported that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) moved to drop several lawsuits related to gender identity discrimination. Let’s examine what caused this change in direction and the implications for employers. Continue reading
Earlier this week, I searched for LGBTQ+ resources on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) website. On Google, I found a page titled “Moving Towards Equality in the Workplace for LGBTQI+ Employees.” But when I clicked the link, I got an error message: “The requested page could not be found.” The same thing happened with several other links.
Now I know why. Continue reading
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