The Title Says It All…Almost
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) voted today, Thursday January 22, 2026, to
rescind guidance, released in 2024, which allowed an
easier pathway for LGBTQIA+ people and women to
seek justice for workplace harassment.
Of course, those immediately affected will be from the LGBTQIA+ community. Reporting, and seeking justice, for workplace harassment will be significantly harder because of the expense and how much time it will take to resolve, not to mention that this relaxes duties of the employer to provide a safe workplace, free from all forms of harassment. This does not mean the federal law has been revoked. While the federal law still stands, the expensiveness, and time-consuming nature of reporting harassment claims under the new guidance will have adverse, and immediate, noticeable effects.
One of great services that the EEOC offers is to provide employees a free investigation and resolution any complaints had.
Rescinding the previous guidelines means, that, while in the interim, LGBTQIA+ people are in the crosshairs, soon all other marginalized people will be, as well.
Not yet set as law; still, it sits on a dangerous ledge:
“But we should not conflate the EEOC rescinding guidance with rescinding the law that’s in place. Even though it does not change the law, it will still have an adverse, tangible, harmful effect on LGBTQ+ employees, because it will be expensive and time consuming” to pursue these cases in court…”
Trump, in the beginning of his 2nd term, fired two of the three Democratic commissioners before their terms ended. Andrea Lucas was elevated to chair the agency. She signaled early on that one of her top priorities was to make it harder for trans/gnc/nonbinary peoples to file complaints of harassment.
After this, another Trump-picked Republican was confirmed to the agency. There is one Democrat remaining, thereby creating the advantage. Lucas said “rescinding the 2024 guidance because it protects LGBTQIA+ people at the expense of women.”
“Women’s sex-based rights in the workplace are under attack — and from the EEOC, the very federal agency charged with protecting women from sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination at work,” Lucas wrote at the time the guidance was released.”
Of course, at the root of all of this is that Lucas is using the same, tired tropes about needing to protect women from the scary, evil, queer people.
Also, if that wasn’t enough salt in the wound, in December, urged white men to report harassment at work related to their race or gender. This definitely has wider implications for the future, as DEI efforts are being completely destroyed. The racism, queerphobia, and bigotry is truly overwhelming, and a bitter pill to swallow after so many positive advancements in DEI.
So, all of this huffing and puffing about trans women being monsters and queer people taking up too much space at the expensive of white, cis women (who will eventually feel the brunt of this too. Remember first they came for me, and they did nothing…). The nerve, the absolute gall. All other ethnicities and race categories, other than white cis men, and to a lesser extent, white cis women, need not file complaints, as the EEOC will make it as hard as possible for said complaints to really be heard, and for appropriate action to be taken.
What more will this administration have in store for us as a whole? How much more cruel can they be to marginalized communities? When will this end? Will change come in enough time to salvage some of the advances that have been made regarding trans/gnc/nonbinary people? People with disabilities? Yall (including me. Intersections, remember.)
One last thing—the EEOC threw out the 200-page 2024 guidance altogether, instead of picking portions of the document. They knew that it would cause major red flags if this administration and the EEOC followed protocol. Of course, this move has been highly criticized by multiple advocacy organizations.
The EEOC’s decision to rescind the guidance was widely criticized by advocacy organizations supporting women and LGBTQ+ people. The National Women’s Law Center said it was “yet another example of the EEOC straying from its core mission … leaving workers without the protections they deserve — especially women, Black people and other people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, and other workers that face harassment and violence at disproportionately high rates.” The Human Rights Campaign said it would “destabilize our understanding of civil rights protections — for communities across the board — that generations of Americans have fought for, demanded and defended.
Hard times are upon us, friends. It is a struggle to keep our heads above water. Remember this - Existence is revolutionary. Keep up the good fight!"
“I think what motivates people is not great hate, but great love for other people.”
Huey P. Newton
“To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”
'“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”
The Art Of War by Sun Tzu
