Hawley, Lee Press EEOC Over Trans Bathroom and Pronoun Rules

Republican lawmakers are pressing the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to rescind a regulatory document on LGBT workplace policies. 

Sens. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) and Mike Lee (R., Utah) sent a letter Wednesday to EEOC chair Charlotte Burrows about the document, which advises employers that the Supreme Court’s 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County decision requires them to grant LGBT workers access to their preferred bathroom facilities and raises failure to use preferred pronouns to the level of unlawful harassment. The letter notes senior agency officials believe the document was issued outside normal channels and goes well beyond the Court’s holding, citing reporting from the Washington Free Beacon.

"This guidance is yet another example of how Democrat-appointed bureaucrats wish to leverage the machinery of the administrative state to bully private employers to kowtow to the social justice agenda," the letter reads. 

The letter highlights fractures in the Senate Republican caucus over managing the emboldened agency, which was created by the 1964 Civil Rights Act to enforce workplace discrimination laws. On the same day Hawley and Lee sent their letter to Burrows, the Senate confirmed Jocelyn Samuels, a Democrat, to another five-year term on the EEOC by a 52-47 vote. A handful of Republicans gave Samuels a boost throughout the process.