FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
DETROIT – The ACLU of Michigan announced today that it is seeking to intervene in a federal transgender rights lawsuit after the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) informed the court that it was abandoning its claims against a Culver’s restaurant in Clarkston for allegedly firing a transgender man and his colleagues who complained to management about discrimination and harassment at work. Although 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 Trump’s executive order directing federal agencies not to promote “gender ideology.”
The ACLU’s clients, Regina Zaviski and Savannah Nurme-Robinson, were co-workers of Asher Lucas, a transgender man, at Culver’s. An EEOC investigation found that all three lost their jobs after going to supervisors with concerns about the way Mr. Lucas was being mistreated at work by a fellow employee because he is transgender.
The EEOC is the federal agency tasked with investigating employment discrimination and retaliation claims, including discrimination and retaliation based on gender identity. If it determines that an employer violated the law, it can also sue to enforce the law that the employer violated, and seek damages and other relief for the affected employees. Typically, the employees have no need to become personally involved in the case because the EEOC’s duty is to represent their interests.
In this case, following the EEOC’s investigation of a complaint filed by Mr. Lucas, the EEOC sued Culver’s and associated business entities on Oct. 25, 2024, seeking relief for Mr. Lucas as well as Ms. Zaviski and Ms. Nurme-Robinson. However, under the Trump administration, the EEOC has reversed course on protecting the rights of transgender employees—and has even moved to dismiss its claims in the ongoing lawsuit against Culver’s as well as in multiple other workplace discrimination cases filed on behalf of transgender employees across the nation. The EEOC’s justification for dismissing the cases is that the suits “may be inconsistent” with President Trump’s recently issued executive order directing federal agencies to “recognize that women are ‘biologically female, and men are biologically male.’”
Because of the EEOC’s intention to withdraw from the case, Ms. Zaviski and Ms. Nurme-Robinson will be left without legal recourse unless they formally intervene as plaintiffs to protect their own interests in the lawsuit. Mr. Lucas, who has separate counsel, was granted permission to intervene last month. The lawsuit and the ACLU’s motion on behalf of Ms. Zaviski and Ms. Nurme-Robinson are pending in the U.S. District Court in Detroit before Judge Brandy R. McMillion.
Regina Zaviski said this about the case:
“I was raised to believe everyone should be treated with dignity and respect. I was also taught that it is important to speak out when you see something wrong, and to try and stop it. The way Asher was being harassed was terribly wrong, so I spoke out against it. It was also wrong and illegal for me to be fired for doing that, just as it was wrong and illegal for Asher to be fired for sticking up for himself. He was only trying to be a good employee, which he was. What your gender is, or how you present yourself at work, has nothing to do with your ability to make French fries.”
Savannah Nurme-Robinson said this about the case:
“It is always important to speak out 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.”
Syeda Davidson, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Michigan, said this about the lawsuit:
“When the government agency that is supposed to protect the civil rights of all people abandons an entire group it is supposed to protect, at the behest of a president who is cruelly vilifying them, we have no choice but to step in and try to help, which we will do with all that we have. This administration’s willingness to ditch its legal obligations is the continuation of the onslaught of attacks on transgender people that is happening in our state and across the country. It is deeply harmful and must be stopped.”
Read the ACLU’s motion to intervene here.
Read the ACLU’s complaint in intervention here.
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