Government Commission Halts Investigations of LGBTQ+ Workplace Discrimination

Mother Jones illustration; Bill Pugliano/Getty

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has temporarily halted investigations into the complaints of workers who say they were targeted based on their gender identity or sexual orientation, three current and former EEOC staffers tell Mother Jones.

EEOC managers communicated this instruction to senior employees in recent days, according to these sources, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation. Industry publication HR Dive reported the pause in claim processing last week; Mother Jones can confirm the moratorium prevents staff from making telephone calls, conducting research, or otherwise investigating both new and existing complaints. “There is what they are calling a pause on investigations of both transgender rights and sexual orientation charges,” an EEOC employee says.

Neither the White House nor the EEOC communications team responded to requests for comment about the stoppage, but the EEOC sources say the pause is in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order on “gender ideology extremism.”

That executive order calls for every agency and all federal employees to “enforce laws governing sex-based rights, protections, opportunities, and accommodations to protect men and women as biologically distinct sexes.” It does not explicitly instruct agencies to end protections based on sexual orientation, but current and former staffers say the commission lacks clarity on Trump’s guidance and fears crossing him.

“People are afraid of being on the wrong side of this administration, which is very punitive and takes retribution against people that are not seen as sufficiently loyal,” a former EEOC employee says. “In a climate like that, it’s not surprising people are perhaps even going above and beyond the guidance that’s coming from the White House in an effort to show their loyalty—or just not understanding what the guidance is.”

Andrea Lucas, the Trump-designated acting chair of the EEOC, said in a January 21 press release that she intends to prioritize “defending the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights” and “rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination.”

Experts find the standstill concerning, especially considering how the Supreme Court previously ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County, a 2020 case related to workplace discrimination based on a person’s LGBTQ+ status. 

The majority of EEOC cases cite Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which stipulates that employers cannot discriminate against a person’s race, religion, sex, or national origin. In Bostock, the Supreme Court held in a 6–3 opinion—authored by Trump-appointee Neil Gorsuch—that the term “sex” in Title VII protected LGBTQ+ employees from being fired as a result of their sexual orientation or whether they are trans.

“Discrimination against somebody on the basis of their being gay, for instance, or their being someone who is a transgender individual, is illegal employment discrimination, because the Supreme Court held that it is sex discrimination in Bostock,” says Brian Wolfman, a Georgetown law professor who won a sex-based employment discrimination case in front of the Supreme Court last year.

The pause on investigations is just one of many changes at the EEOC since Lucas took over. There have also been several changes to the system where people can lodge employment complaints. On the public-facing side of the portal, the EEOC removed the “Mx” salutation, the “X” gender identifier, and the option to fill in pronouns.

When an EEOC employee looked at the backend of the system this week, the status of all Title VII cases involving sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI) had a new tag: “SOGI PAUSED”

“People depend on the EEOC to process cases,” says Wolfman. “The idea that they’re just pausing certain categories of cases that the Supreme Court has held fit within the statutory definition of discrimination is really troubling.”