Advocacy groups have sought to intervene in at least two lawsuits filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of transgender workers alleging job discrimination after EEOC moved to dismiss the cases, according to court documents.
The two cases are EEOC v. Boxwood Hotels, LLC in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York and EEOC v. Brik Enterprises, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
In the former proceeding, a transgender former employee of a Holiday Inn Express in Jamestown, New York, claimed that they were repeatedly and intentionally misgendered by a manager on their first day of work and fired the following day after complaining to management. A Feb. 20 court filing asked the court to admit an attorney from the Gender Equality Law Center to argue or try the case in whole or in part for the plaintiff.
The latter case involves allegations by an employee for a franchise of restaurant chain Culver’s that a manager repeatedly harassed the plaintiff and that the employer failed to take prompt remedial measures to stop the harassment. Following EEOC’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit it brought on behalf of the employee and other plaintiffs, two plaintiffs moved to intervene under the representation of attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union Fund of Michigan, according to a Feb. 27 filing.
In a press release published the same day as the filing in Brik Enterprises, Syeda Davidson, senior staff attorney at ACLU of Michigan, said that the organization had “no choice but to step in and try to help” following EEOC’s decision to end litigation.
“This administration’s willingness to ditch its legal obligations is the continuation of the onslaught of attacks on transgender people that is happening in our state and across the country,” Davidson said. “It is deeply harmful and must be stopped.”
Over the last month, EEOC moved to dismiss Boxwood Hotels and Brik Enterprises in addition to several other lawsuits alleging discrimination against transgender workers as part of a broader enforcement shift in the wake of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Prior to the filings, EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas said in a statement that the commission would, in line with Trump’s executive order on “gender ideology extremism,” prioritize the defense of “the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights” within the context of EEOC’s compliance, investigatory and legal work.
In each of the motions to dismiss previously viewed by HR Dive, EEOC said that its continued litigation of the cases “may be inconsistent” with both Trump’s executive order and guidance from the Office of Personnel Management.
Despite the policy changes at EEOC implemented under Trump, employers still must note that gender-identity discrimination is illegal under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act as well as under many state and local laws, attorneys at Tripp Scott wrote in a Feb. 25 opinion piece for HR Dive.
