Articles Posted in Gender Identity

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Seal of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Yesterday, President Trump appointed Andrea Lucas as the Acting Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), signaling notable changes for the agency tasked with enforcing federal anti-discrimination laws in the workplace. Lucas brings a clear set of priorities to address workplace discrimination. Here’s what HR professionals, employment lawyers, and business owners should know about them

1. Rights of Individuals > Group Outcomes

Lucas advocates for balanced enforcement of employment civil rights laws. She believes the EEOC’s role is to protect the rights of individuals, not to measure justice by group outcomes. This approach emphasizes that civil rights laws should be applied equally to everyone, regardless of their background. “I intend to dispel the notion that only the ‘right sort of’ charging party is welcome through our doors,” said Lucas.

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In 2015, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission determined that a federal agency that denied an employee equal access to a common bathroom/facility corresponding to the employee’s gender identity discriminated based on sex and could not restrict a transgender employee to a single-user restroom. About five years later, the Supreme Court ruled that discrimination based on transgender status is sex discrimination in violation of Title VII.

Yesterday, the EEOC announced a lawsuit against several employers claiming that forbidding transgender workers from using restrooms consistent with their gender identity contributed to a hostile work environment based on their sex.
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I’m going to tell you about a transgender man who worked for three years as a sergeant for a state prison. While working at the prison, he began the process of medically and socially transitioning to align with his gender identity. He underwent hormone replacement therapy, obtained a legal name change, and decided to live openly as a man.

Since he had to disclose his gender identity at work, the employee contacted Human Resources. On a phone call with the HR director, during which the employer inquired if he “had the surgery,” the employee could hear people laughing.

As others learned about the man’s transition, he endured what the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals described as “constant and humiliating harassment.”

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While recognizing the prevalence of automated systems, including those sometimes marketed as “artificial intelligence” or “AI,” and the “insights and breakthroughs, increasing efficiencies and cost-savings” that AI can offer, four federal agencies recently announced in a joint statement that they are ready to police “unlawful bias,” “unlawful discrimination,” and “other harmful outcomes” too. Continue reading

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Yesterday, I wrote about a man who claimed that his employer retaliated against him by forcing him to resign after he objected to attending workplace training on anti-racism and gender identity.

It was a good story. We employment lawyers have plenty of them. But, perhaps, it wasn’t great.

But what if I told you that the man’s son also worked for the same employer, objected to attending the same training modules, and eventually sued the same employer for race and religious discrimination? Continue reading

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When I think of Pennsylvania, it’s the Liberty Bell, cheesesteaks, and that putrid football team from Pittsburgh with the fans that wave yellow towels.

I also think of employer-friendly employment laws.

But one of those associations may soon be eroding. (Spoiler alert: not my opinion of the hapless Steelers). Continue reading

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