On January 29, 2025, in the wake of numerous executive orders from President Donald Trump, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Acting Chair Andrea Lucas announced that the EEOC has radically changed focus.
The EEOC stated that it is returning to its mission of protecting women from sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination in the workplace by rolling back the Biden administration’s gender identity agenda.
In her press release, the acting chair said:
“The same agency that in the 1960s and 70s fought to ensure women had the right to their own restrooms, locker rooms, sleeping quarters, and other sex-specific workplace facilities—and established that it would be sex discrimination not to provide such women-only facilities—betrayed women by attacking their sex-based rights in the workplace. That must end.”
The about-face apparently stems from Executive Order 14166, titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which directed federal agencies to enforce laws governing sex-based rights, protections, opportunities, and accommodations to protect men and women as biologically distinct sexes, and to remove all statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications, or other internal and external messages promoting gender ideology.
In making this change, the EEOC announced that a new priority is “to defend the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights, including women’s rights to single-sex spaces at work.”
One practical change coming likely will be a revised and revamped “Know Your Rights” poster that the EEOC publishes for wide use across the country.
Another practical change will be a return to, or emphasis on, so-called bathroom wars. That said, there is nothing unlawful at this time in allowing individuals to use a restroom that correlates with their gender identity.
Other changes in the agency’s approach and focus are on the horizon, though the acting commissioner is without power to revamp them entirely. For example, although she remains a staunch opponent of certain EEOC gender-identity-related guidance, it’s up to the entire Commission, which acts on majority vote, to decide whether certain guidance documents will be revoked or rescinded. Among these documents are:
- the Commission’s Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace (issued by a 3-2 vote in 2024);
- the EEOC Strategic Plan 2022-2026 (issued by a 3-2 vote in 2023); and
- the EEOC Strategic Enforcement Plan Fiscal Years 2024-2028 (issued by a 3-2 vote in 2023).
Employers in New York must remain aware that New York Law, particularly the Human Rights Law, hasn’t changed. So the notions of gender identity remain a very real issue for workplace discrimination. It will take months, and possibly years, for the courts to sort through the likely new conflicts between State and Federal Law.
Nevertheless, these are fast moving – and often confusing – times for employers. We’ll keep our eyes and ears out and will continue to digest and report on developments at coppolalegal.com.
If you have questions, feel free to reach out at 716.839.9700. We’re here to help.
