A transgender former employee of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit Thursday, alleging the agency’s — and particularly Chair Andrea Lucas’ — “zealous implementation” of President Donald Trump’s antitransgender executive order resulted in a hostile work environment violating of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The worker, a former director of information governance and strategy, said that following the president’s executive order establishing that the government “recognizes two sexes” and they are “not changeable,” Lucas engaged in a series of actions at the agency to align with the order.
These allegedly included actions that alienated transgender agency employees, including rescinding LGBTQ+ antidiscrimination policies that had been in place since 2009, disbanding the LGBTQ+ employee resource group and dismantling an app the worker had himself spent months developing, which enabled agency employees to voluntarily display their pronouns in emails and chats.
The worker also referenced external-facing actions that removed agency support for trans people. He was allegedly directed to create an automated process to quickly remove all mentions of LGBTQ+ people and information about their rights from EEOC training and outreach materials. EEOC also dismissed at least six of its own active cases on behalf of transgender workers.
The employee allegedly filed an equal employment opportunity complaint in March 2025, which he said he was forced to submit as a report rather than a formal complaint due to EEOC removing gender identity discrimination as a basis for complaint.
The worker alleged this complaint resulted in retaliation, including his exclusion from decision-making processes he would have ordinarily been included in and “unprecedented and unreasonable oversight” of his work. He alleged his network permissions were suddenly revoked, that he was excluded from a meeting despite being a lead on the project and that his office refused to put in writing that he was able to use the restroom that aligned with his gender identity.
On June 13, 2025, the worker submitted a formal EEO complaint, and he resigned in an email to agency leaders on June 18, 2025, which he alleged was constructive discharge based on retaliatory treatment.
“Until now, my accomplishments have been consistently praised and highly rated,” he wrote, according to court documents. “Now, I am systematically devalued.”
The lawsuit allegedly follows a March 27 final agency decision from EEOC’s Office of Legal Counsel, which found the agency had not violated the worker’s Title VII rights, “primarily on the grounds that actions that discriminated against the LGBTQ+ community generally did not, in the Agency’s view, sufficiently target [the plaintiff] individually,” per the complaint.
The plaintiff “did everything that the law asks of an employee who faces discrimination at work,” Rebecca Peterson-Fisher, an attorney for the plaintiff, said in a statement. “He raised concerns internally, filed an EEO complaint, and participated in a process that he believed was at the core of the EEOC’s work. It is both ironic and infuriating that the Chair of the agency tasked with upholding our anti-discrimination laws now actively participates in discrimination.”
An EEOC spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit.