Amarillo, TX — A federal judge has vacated segments of guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission aimed at preventing and addressing worker harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
A May 15 ruling from Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northwestern District of Texas asserts that portions of EEOC’s April 2024 guidance are “contrary to law.”
This includes language establishing sexual orientation and gender identity as legally protected characteristics under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as a section that outlines harassment related to sexual orientation and gender identity.
The decision also removes multiple updated scenarios illustrating when harassing conduct may contribute to a hostile work environment and violate equal employment opportunity law. Among them is a situation in which a worker is “regularly and intentionally misgendered.”
The 2024 update to the workplace harassment guidance marked EEOC’s first since 1999. The state of Texas and conservative Heritage Foundation challenged the guidance in an Aug. 15 lawsuit.
In its ruling, the court uses as precedent the 2020 Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. Kacsmaryk stated that although the case maintained that workplace discrimination against LGBTQ+ workers is illegal, it didn’t extend the definition of “sex” beyond male and female.
“The court,” Kacsmaryk wrote, “agrees with plaintiffs for two reasons: First, the enforcement guidance contravenes Title VII’s plain text by expanding the scope of ‘sex’ beyond the biological binary. Second, the enforcement guidance contravenes Title VII by defining discriminatory harassment to include failure to accommodate a transgender employee’s bathroom, pronoun and dress preferences.”
In a press release, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said that “this ruling is more than a legal victory. It’s a cultural one.”
In a separate release, Liz Theran, senior director of litigation for education and workplace justice at the National Women’s Law Center, called the court’s decision an “outrage and blatantly at odds with Supreme Court precedent.”
She continued: “The EEOC’s harassment guidance reminds employers and workers alike to do one simple thing that should cost no one anything: refrain from degrading others on the job based on their identity and who they love. This decision does not change the law, but it will make it harder for LGBTQIA+ workers to enforce their rights and experience a workplace free from harassment.”
Acting EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas voted against the updated harassment guidelines in 2024. In January, she called them “fundamentally flawed” while calling for their repeal.
The commission writes that although it can’t rescind the guidance without a quorum, “the EEOC has labeled and shaded the vacated portions of the guidance on the agency’s website.”
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Original article published by Safety+Health an NSC publication