A lawsuit has been filed by 18 states against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) new regulations, which extend Title VII protections of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include “gender identity”. The states contend that these rules, which mandate employers and employees use preferred pronouns and accommodate transgender restroom and dress code preferences, represent an unconstitutional attempt to impose gender-identity mandates without congressional approval.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, an initiator of the lawsuit, criticized the EEOC’s move as an overreach by an agency that ought to be accountable to the people. The lawsuit cites the EEOC’s April 29 “Enforcement Document” which requires employers to respect a person’s preferred pronouns and adhere to bathroom and dress code preferences in line with an individual’s declared gender identity.
The EEOC justified its regulations on the grounds of the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. This ruling stated that terminating an employee due to their homosexuality or transgenderism was considered “sex” discrimination under Title VII. However, the attorneys general argue that this decision didn’t extend to issues relating to “bathrooms, locker rooms, and dress codes”.
These recent EEOC regulations are not the first of their kind; similar provisions were struck down in October 2022 by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The court called the regulations a mistaken application of the Bostock ruling and a violation of numerous federal laws and EEOC protocols. The EEOC’s renewed efforts to enforce gender identity laws are part of a broader trend, with the Department of Education recently rewriting Title IX rules to permit transgender women access to women’s spaces in schools.