This story was originally reported by Amanda Becker by The 19thand republished via Rewire Newsgroup’s partnership with The 19th News Network
A transgender employee is repeatedly and deliberately discriminated against by his colleague. A workplace prohibits an employee from using facilities that match his gender identity. A supervisor suggests that a transgender subordinate should not be allowed to do public work.
Going forward, it will become more difficult, timely, and expensive for LGBTQ+ employees to seek justice for these and other workplace harassment issues related to their gender identity and sexuality.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, voted 2-1 on Jan. 22, 2026, to rescind years-long guidance the agency issued in 2024 on the application of current civil rights laws to workplace harassment. The 200 page document included more than 75 examples of harassment scenarios employers may face and explained the agency’s thinking.
The EEOC’s move to throw out the guidelines will be felt most immediately by LGBTQ+ workers, experts say The 19thbut it will also have wider implications for anyone who experiences harassment at work based on gender, race or ethnicity – and for employers trying to comply with the underlying law.
“One of the most important services the EEOC provides to employees is a free investigation and resolution of their complaint,” explains Chai Feldblum, who served as one of the civil rights office’s five commissioners during the Obama administration and until the start of President Donald Trump’s first term.
“But we should not confuse the EEOC’s repeal guidance with repealing existing law. Even if the law does not change, it will still have an adverse, tangible and damaging effect on LGBTQ+ workers because it will be expensive and time-consuming” to bring these cases to court, she added.
In the early days of his second term in the White House, Trump fired two of the three Democratic EEOC commissioners before their terms expired. for the first time by a president in the agency’s 60-year history. He appointed Andrea Lucas, who had served on the committee since the end of his first term, as interim chair of the agency. Without a quorum, however, the EEOC was limited in what it could do Lucas gave a signal early on that one of her top priorities was to hinder the ability of gender diverse people to file harassment complaints. Lucas was confirmed as chairman in July, after which Trump was elected Brittany Bull Panuccio was confirmed in October. Kalpana Kotagal is the only remaining Democratic commissioner.
Once a quorum was in place, the EEOC announced it would meet to consider rescinding the 2024 guidance, which Lucas said protected LGBTQ+ people at the expense of women. The agency developed much of the guidance regarding LGBTQ+ employees – and the examples of how employers should apply it – following the 2020 Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton Countya landmark ruling that found that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protected workers from discrimination based on their gender identity or sexuality.
“Women’s sex-based rights in the workplace are under attack – and so is the EEOC, the federal agency charged with protecting women from sexual harassment and sex discrimination in the workplace,” Lucas wrote when the guidance was released.
In December, Lucas released a video urging white men to report workplace harassment related to their race or gender, indicating that the EEOC’s enforcement priorities going forward will be tied to the government’s broader focus on curbing diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, efforts.
The EEOC did not choose which parts of the harassment guidelines to withdraw, but instead destroyed the 200-page document entirely. The pick and choose, Feldblum suggested, might have required a longer comment period and would have focused attention on the reasons behind the push to withdraw the proposal. The EEOC has skipped the traditional 30-day notice and comment period for the public to weigh in.
“The directive addresses harassment on all protected bases — race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability and genetic information,” Kotagal, the Democratic commissioner, said at the meeting.
She noted that for many employees, the EEOC is often the “only opportunity” to “defend their civil rights.” She said she was “proud” to support the EEOC guidance because it “empowers employees to know their rights and employers, especially small businesses, to know their responsibilities.”
Panuccio said Thursday that the “private sector is filled with resources” on how employers should apply workplace harassment laws.
The EEOC’s decision to withdraw the guidelines was widely criticized by advocacy groups that support women and LGBTQ+ people. The National Women’s Law Center said this is “yet another example of the EEOC straying from its core mission… leaving workers without the protections they deserve – especially women, Black and other people of color, LGBTQIA+ people and other workers who disproportionately experience harassment and violence.” The Human Rights Campaign said it would “destabilize our understanding of the civil rights protections – for communities across the board – that generations of Americans have fought, demanded and defended.
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