The ACLU of Michigan saw a glaring need and stepped in to fill a dangerous void last week after new Trump administration policies threatened to leave two Oakland County women to fend for themselves after they alleged that they were fired from a restaurant for speaking up about mistreatment of a transgender co-worker, who was also terminated from his job.
Until recently, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) – the federal agency tasked with investigating employment discrimination and retaliation claims, including those involving gender identity – would have protected the interests of these three fired employees in court. In fact, it did conduct an investigation that determined all three were illegally fired.
However, after a lawsuit was filed in 2024 against the Oakland County restaurant that had employed them, a new presidential administration was seated, and the EEOC’s efforts to seek justice disappeared. That is because, even though the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that employment discrimination against transgender people violates federal law, the EEOC now contends that continuing to enforce that law would violate President Donald Trump’s executive order directing federal agencies not to promote “gender ideology.”
As a result, the EEOC has reversed course on protecting the rights of transgender employees— moving to dismiss its claims in the lawsuit against the restaurant as well as in multiple other workplace discrimination cases filed on behalf of transgender employees across the nation.
The transgender man central to the case, Asher Lucas, had already obtained his own counsel to ensure he would have representation when attempting to protect his rights in court. But the two women who alleged that they were fired for speaking up for him were completely adrift.
Not anymore.
Regina Zaviski and Savannah Nurme-Robinson now have the ACLU of Michigan at their side. Last week, we went to federal court, asking that they be allowed to intervene in the case, with us as their attorneys, to make sure their interests are protected.
Why?
We’ll let Ms. Nurme-Robinson explain:
“It is always important to speak up if someone is being harassed or mistreated. But it is even more important now, when the federal government is not just abandoning its obligation to protect the rights of an entire group of people, but is intentionally targeting them in a way that is extremely cruel and harmful. It is also important to stick up for yourself when your rights are being violated, which, with the help of the ACLU, is what we are doing by pursuing this lawsuit.”
In the face of the EEOC ditching its legal obligations to protect the rights of transgender people and so many other constitutionally questionable actions by the Trump administration, it is important that this message be heard loud and clear:
We will not remain silent, and we won’t be overwhelmed. Together, we will fight back.