The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission voted Thursday to rescind a 190-page workplace anti-harassment guidance document, marking a significant shift in federal civil rights enforcement under President Donald Trump’s second administration. The Republican-controlled agency’s vote, led by Chair Andrea Lucas and Commissioner Brittany Panuccio, was justified by Trump’s executive order declaring there are “two immutable sexes, male and female.”
The guidance had been designed to help employers comply with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and included specific protections for transgender workers. Commissioner Kalpana Kotagal, the commission’s lone Democrat, voted against the rescission.
The rescission reverses protections for transgender employees that were expanded during the Biden administration and leaves workers more vulnerable to workplace harassment, according to worker advocacy groups and former federal officials. The EEOC received more than 35,000 harassment complaints in fiscal year 2024.
Guidance update and historical context
The previous guidance was updated in April 2024 for the first time in 25 years following a 2020 Supreme Court ruling that extended employment-discrimination protections to LGBTQ workers. The 2024 update had been developed over a yearslong process that included more than 38,000 public comments.
In her 2024 dissent to the guidance, Lucas voted against the document, citing opposition to language warning employers against deliberately misgendering transgender employees or denying bathroom access. “It is neither harassment nor discrimination for a business to draw distinctions between the sexes in providing single-sex bathrooms,” Lucas wrote in the dissent.
Agency leadership responds to rescission
Lucas said Thursday that the commission’s decision “will not leave a void where employers are free to harass wherever they see fit, leaving a trail of victims in their wake,” citing recent settled harassment cases.
Commissioner Panuccio said private sector resources on anti-harassment law would fill any gaps left by the rescission.
Kotagal delivered the commission’s strongest opposition to the move. “At the height of the #MeToo movement, millions bravely came forward to share their stories, exposing harassment as an abuse of power,” she said. “The EEOC rose to the occasion by promulgating the guidance being rescinded today, which strives to make workplaces safer for everyone.”
Worker advocates and former officials oppose rescission
More than 80 organizations, led by the National Women’s Law Center, signed a letter urging Lucas to preserve the guidance.
A group of 12 former EEOC and Department of Labor officials also objected to the rescission. The group, called EEO Leaders, said withdrawing the document deprives “employers of a clear blueprint for creating and maintaining a harassment-free workplace and complying with anti-discrimination laws.” They also criticized Lucas for depriving the public of input by foregoing a notice and comment period on the rescission decision.
Protests and broader agency direction
A few dozen protesters gathered outside the EEOC building Thursday morning, holding signs demanding “hands off the EEOC” and waving flags bearing the logo of LGBTQ+ rights group Human Rights Campaign.
Kate Miceli, a protester who previously worked at the Women’s Bureau at the Department of Labor, expressed strong opposition to the move. “The fact that they’re taking this majorly in-depth guidance that is so worker-centered and they’re just chucking it all is such a slap in the face,” she said.
Under Lucas’s leadership, the EEOC has been aggressively limiting protections for transgender workers. The agency has dropped lawsuits on their behalf and requires heightened scrutiny for complaints related to gender identity.