ABSTRACT
The conflict over equal employment opportunities for the transgender community primarily revolves around the interpretation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, specifically on whether it prohibits employment discrimination based on gender identity. After the federal courts ruled that Title VII applies to claims of discrimination by transgender workers, in 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—the federal agency charged with enforcing Title VII—agreed that employers violate Title VII when they base their employment decisions on an employee’s gender identity. Two years later, Attorney General Eric Holder affirmed this position, placing the federal government on the side of plaintiffs who challenge adverse employment decisions based on their gender identity.
In October 2017, Attorney General Jefferson Sessions withdrew Holder’s 2014 statement on gender identity and Title VII, replacing it with a memorandum asserting that Title VII only applies to discrimination based on biological sex, not gender identity.
