SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This week, the federal agency tasked with protecting workers from discrimination rolled back key guidance on harassment. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission voted 2-1 to rescind a nearly 200-page document explaining what exactly is illegal under federal law. As NPR's Andrea Hsu reports, the catalyst for the move was a section about gender diversity.
ANDREA HSU, BYLINE: A year ago, President Trump issued an executive order asserting that, quote, "women are biologically female, and men are biologically male." He talked about it the other day.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Two genders. This was not a tough one. Two genders. Can anybody guess what they are?
HSU: He directed federal agencies to revise or rescind documents that go beyond that view. And the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's 2024 harassment guidance made that list because of a section about trans people. But most of the document discusses harassment based on other protected characteristics.
CHARLOTTE BURROWS: Race, religion, disability, age, sex, of course.
HSU: That's Charlotte Burrows. She was chair of the EEOC when the guidance was approved. She says it has helped countless employers and EEOC staff members protect workers from harassment.
BURROWS: That's what the commission has decided to walk away from.
HSU: The current EEOC chair, Andrea Lucas, was a commissioner back in 2024. And she voted against the guidance, objecting to two examples of harassment it described - first, repeatedly and intentionally calling someone by a name or pronoun they no longer use and, second, denying someone access to a bathroom consistent with their gender identity. She wrote that it's not harassment to acknowledge that sex is binary, and she went on to say women in the workplace will pay the price. Now, as chair, Lucas has led the effort to get rid of the document entirely...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ANDREA LUCAS: And I vote yes.
HSU: ...Without giving the public a chance to weigh in, as is the norm. At Thursday's vote, Lucas said rescinding the guidance would not leave a void where employers would be free to harass, leaving a trail of victims in their wake.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LUCAS: Let me be perfectly clear. The EEOC will not tolerate unlawful harassment, as was the case before the guidance document was issued and will remain so even after the guidance document is rescinded.
HSU: Now, the Trump administration acknowledges that you cannot fire someone because they're transgender. That was affirmed by the Supreme Court. But misgendering someone or denying them access to a bathroom? The administration says those are different matters. Lucas noted that last year, a federal court in Texas struck down the part of the guidance about gender identity.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LUCAS: We were sued, and a court vacated it in full.
HSU: And already last year, the EEOC dropped a number of discrimination lawsuits involving transgender workers. Before the vote, the lone Democratic commissioner, Kalpana Kotagal, described one of them - someone who worked on a hog farm.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KALPANA KOTAGAL: Her employer permitted a co-worker to expose his genitals to her and grope her intimate body parts without consent. She was repeatedly, intentionally deadnamed by leadership and endured explicit sexual comments and advances.
HSU: And eventually, she quit. Kotagal says it's not only transgender workers who will be harmed by the rollback of the guidance. Others will suffer, too.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KOTAGAL: From employees being called racial slurs or epithets to employees contending with antisemitic graffiti or being harassed for being older or for needing religious accommodations or for contending with a disability.
HSU: Now, to be clear, federal antidiscrimination laws haven't changed. But the fear is that without official guidance explaining what is unlawful, harassment on the job will be harder to stop.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Nothing about us without us. Nothing about us without us.
HSU: Before the vote, civil rights groups held a rally outside EEOC headquarters in Washington, D.C. Maria Town, president of the American Association of People with Disabilities, pointed out harassment charges based on disability are the most common.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MARIA TOWN: This harassment guidance isn't just a necessary resource for disabled people. It is literally a tool that we must use to create economic opportunity and power.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #1: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #2: Yes.
HSU: She says rescinding it will hurt workers and employers both.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TOWN: Workplaces where harassment is allowed to thrive are not workplaces at all.
HSU: Because, she says, they are not places where work can meaningfully get done.
Andrea Hsu, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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