Last week, on the third day of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, a number of managers of the Equipment Committee received an e -mail with a routine topic line apparently: “materials and reviews of web sites.” EEOC employees, the Federal Agency that imposes the seventh section of the Civil Rights Law and other anti -discrimination laws for millions of public and private sectors, knew that she expects new guidelines on politics issues, even in drafting, during A, during A, during, the presidential transition . But this email was different. She threatened the agency’s task and its workforce.
Thomas, the Republican Field Programs Office and reports to Republican Act Andrea Lucas, Acting Chairman of the five -member partisan committee, “You know, the last executive eliminates Dia and the ideology of sex requires the request of many updates and amendments to our current practices. Connecting two Trump New executive ordersOne of them calls for ending diversity, fairness, integration, programs and access programs, and another indicates the “biological reality of sex” to argue that transit and non -bilateral people do not need protection under civil rights laws. Since the Supreme Court decision in 2020 in Posk against Clayton ProvinceWhere the court ruled that it is illegal to launch an employee for being gay or transgender, EEOC interpreted non -discrimination laws in the workplace to cover all members of LGBTQIA+. This means, for example, that anyone who believes that he was harassed or lower salaries, or was transferred to a job because of his sexual identity or sexual inclinations can come to any of the fiftieth offices of EOC and provide a charge of it and then investigate – only one can To be a woman or be blind. (In order to prosecute the court for federal discrimination at the workplace, the plaintiff must first “exhaust” the EEOC process.) EEOC also trained government entities, employers, employees, and public public on how to prevent harassment and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and sexual identity. Now this seemed to go away.
E -mail asked employees to “avoid discussions on all references, chipset floors and bulletins on the state of transgender and gender transition; To reduce “the use of pronouns and etiquette”; To tell “external offers that these topics may not be discussed or used in any case material.” Employees were also informed of “reduction in” EEOC axis document: enforcement evidence in the workplace harassment that was updated in 2024 to include “sexual harassment”. It seems that Lucas, the Acting President, was determined that EEOC was among the first agencies to carry out Trump’s orders, although it contradicts the agency’s basic tasks. “I think it thinks that other agencies are looking forward to EEOC because we have experience in the topic. Like,” this is the way in which transit people are bound, I impose two sex, “a former EEC lawyer told me.
Separately, the employees who worked on diversity and classification initiatives were banned from doing anything related to Deia, it was not clear. Where did Dia ended and the enforcement of civil rights laws-which EOC was established to implement, in 1964-bienn? Many of the current employees, who spoke with me, said that his identity was not disclosed, said they were confused about the extent of allowing them to complete their daily duties: opening investigations into discrimination or alleged harassment, training, and even interviewing with complaints. In the fiscal year 2023, EEOC received more than eighty thousand charges of discrimination or harassment, about twenty -five thousand sex dependent. One of the current employees told me: “There was a permanent feeling that” our mission has been turned. “All the signs that we get are that we will now stop our enforcement before and conflict with people actively.”
Two days later, several groups of convergence of employees that are permitted by federal regulations and were encouraged within the framework of the Biden Administration – including EEOC pride, military old warriors (who make up about a third of EEOC employees), blacks in government, Al -Salam Corps graduates, EEOC Calling employees with disabilities-at a meeting at the last minute, via Microsoft teams. They were told that all of these groups would have to solve and stop their activities, which included communication with employers and employees. They were told that the software feature that enabled the workers to the emergence of their favorite consciences after their name in the teams ’meetings, and emails will be canceled for expectations. Someone asked whether it was possible to celebrate the month of black history; The answer was no.
During the weekend, the agency employees exchanged calls and texts with each other, trying to understand chaos. Those who are strange and transgender have asked whether they will be forced to get out of their jobs. “People are not sure to allow them to say their consciences,” the current employee said. “I don’t even think they can use the word” via “safely at work.” Those who suffer from transient couple and children are concerned about the loss of access to gender health care. (This week, Trump has signed something prohibited from minors from reaching such care, which he called a “chemical and surgical boom”. Bilateral sex brand “X.”
On Monday, with Trump’s signing of an effective matter prohibiting the people of the army, EEC enforcement employees were under the impression that they no longer had to investigate discrimination complaints on the basis of sexual identity, and that the current cases were “freezing”. Late that night, the administration launched EEOC’s general advisor, Carla Gilbrid, two Democratic Commissioners who are famous for their invitation to LGBTQIA+ – Charlotte Burrows and Joclyn Samuels. It is common for the new president to replace the General Adviser, but there is no way in fact a precedent for the commissioners who are launched on party ground. (Trump, in fact, appointed Samuelon to the committee during his first term. When I asked the White House about the shooting, an email official said, “These people were on the extreme left with radical records to spend long -term work. : “One of the things that the shooting is on me and the commissioner in the burrow is an attempt to convert EEOC into something similar to the cabinet agency, run by one of the administration that dictates the policy that it will be.”
The Acting Lucas has issued a press statement on Tuesday evening, making the official points in the colclough from the previous week. Under her leadership, she said that EEOC will make the priority of “defending the biological and bilateral reality.” The committee condemned “to expand illegally past Posk“Dictates” by applying the right of workers converted to access to the bathrooms and other facilities they choose and be safe from bullying in the workplace. But according to Kate Ridberne, the director of the Ceviche and Sex Center at Colombia’s Law College, Postek, said, “The Supreme Court said unambiguously that protecting the seventh door against discrimination at the workplace on the basis of sex includes discrimination based on sexual tendency or sexual identity,” said Kate Ridburn, but the Cate Ridburn, Director of the Cemx and Sex at Columbia Faculty of Law in Posteuk. (EEOC spokesman told me that Lucas reads poster that it carries this distinction on the basis of “being gay or transgender”, but does not depend on “sexual identity”, which constitutes “sexual discrimination”.)
By the time Lucas published its statement, the Personnel Affairs Department, the Human Resources Agency of the Federal Government, sent a collective email message that presses all federal workers to adopt the Trump agenda or its fully resign. OPM has also issued instructions that require all agencies to amend all documents immediately to “male or females only” and set “intimate spaces”. . . Through biological sex, not sexual identity ” – in fact, the government’s invitation to change its workplaces in a way that it may have been sentenced to EEOC two weeks ago. EEOC employees felt anxious, but those who spoke to them were hoping to stay. He said. Another current employee: “I have only met people this week who have gone through unimaginable things in their workplace.” We are brave enough to continue to perform our jobs. “♦
