Tag: gender identity

Stakeholders get more time to comment on EEOC’s harassment guidance

Stakeholders now have until March 21 to comment on proposed antiharassment guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The move is in line with the new administration’s overall approach of pausing Obama administration initiatives and taking time to evaluate them, said Jonathan Mook, a founding partner of DiMuro Ginsberg PC and an editor of […]

‘No-brainer’ appointment: Lipnic to head EEOC

President Donald Trump has chosen Victoria A. Lipnic to serve as acting chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced on January 25. She will replace Jenny Yang as chair, but Democrats still will retain a majority on the commission for some time. Lipnic’s appointment was “a no-brainer,” says Jonathan Mook, a […]

U.S. Supreme Court to consider transgender restroom lawsuit

by Ryan B. Frazier During the 1990s, Saturday Night Live, a popular TV sketch comedy show, featured a recurring gender-ambiguous character, Pat. The gag in Pat’s comedy sketches often involved others’ failed attempts to determine the seemingly androgynous character’s gender. The skits played off the then-prevailing view that a person’s gender falls into one of […]

What’s gender identity got to do with work?

by Amanda M. Jones From Bruce Jenner’s announcement that he was transitioning to become a woman named “Caitlyn” to North Carolina’s passage of a so-called bathroom bill requiring schools and public agencies to restrict bathroom use to the facility corresponding to a person’s biological sex at birth, gender identity issues have become the subject of […]

Target to spend millions on single-stall bathrooms

by Ryan Olson Target recently announced that employees and customers at its stores may use the public restroom that corresponds with their gender identity. Now, amid criticism of its transgender bathroom policy by some customers, the company has said that it will spend $20 million to make single-stall bathrooms available in every store. Controversial policy. […]

Transgender bathroom case makes it to Supreme Court

by Rachael L. Loughlin On October 28, 2016, the Supreme Court granted the request of the School Board of Gloucester County to consider whether the Court should overturn a decision of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Fourth Circuit ordered the School Board to allow Gavin Grimm, who was born female but identifies as […]

How do ‘bathroom bills’ affect employers in other states?

by Joseph Godwin Much attention has been given recently to laws passed concerning transgender individuals’ use of public restrooms. Over the past few years, state legislatures have passed or proposed “bathroom bills” that generally require individuals to use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender listed on their birth certificate and prevent transgender individuals from […]

U.S. Supreme Court puts transgender bathroom case on hold

by Rachael L. Loughlin The case of the Gloucester County, Virginia, transgender high-school student fighting to use the restroom that matches his gender identity has been making its way through the federal court system for more than a year. Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on the matter, adding yet another twist to the high-profile […]

EEOC issues bathroom guidelines for transgender employees

by Charlie Plumb Last summer, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released its “Best Practices: A Guide to Restroom Access for Transgender Workers.” In a nutshell, the OSHA publication stated that transgender employees should have access to the restroom that corresponds to their gender identity rather than to their birth gender.  Presumably in response […]

EEOC lawsuits may change how employers handle sexual orientation issues

by Brent E. Siler The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently filed its first lawsuits alleging that discrimination based on sexual orientation is sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. While the EEOC has successfully filed sex discrimination claims on behalf of LGBT employees in the past, the recent lawsuits […]