The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has published a new Fact Sheet on LGBT discrimination that employers will find helpful. As I've reported before here and here, the agency is taking an aggressive position regarding coverage of LGBT issues under Title VII's sex discrimination provisions. The EEOC's fact sheet, as well as other materials linked in it, should answer most ...

NOTE FROM ROBIN: As you know, my main collaborator on HB2-related developments has been my law partner, Jon Yarbrough, who is in our firm's Asheville Office. Jon has offered his thoughts about Executive Order No. 93, which Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed yesterday.

My initial thought is that Executive Order No. 93 is a whole bunch of nothing cloaked as something.

No. 1 - Regarding ...

Of significance to employers, the bill, which was signed into law last Wednesday, eliminates the common-law cause of action for wrongful discharge based on "EEO" discrimination. I talked about that here.

Here is a copy of the lawsuit, filed today in federal court in Greensboro, North Carolina. The plaintiffs are three individuals (two transgender men and a lesbian), the American ...

Big news for employees and employers in North Carolina -- the General Assembly enacted a bill on Wednesday (signed by Gov. Pat McCrory (R) within hours) that was primarily intended to preempt a certain high-profile municipal "bathroom" ordinance. (More on that in a sec.) But included in the bill is a provision that eliminates the wrongful discharge/public policy cause of ...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released a nice little "fact sheet" this week for small businesses, summarizing their obligations under the laws that the EEOC enforces. Here's a link.

Just be aware that "sex," in the EEOC's opinion, includes sexual orientation and gender identity.

(No jokes about small hands or "little" presidential candidates

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed today two lawsuits contending that employers' alleged discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation violates the Title VII ban on sex discrimination. One suit was filed on behalf of a gay call center employee in Pennsylvania, and the other was filed on behalf of a lesbian forklift operator in Maryland.

Here is the ...

Law360 reported yesterday morning that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission settled a transgender discrimination and harassment lawsuit (not our Detroit-area funeral home case). Although the employer entered into the consent decree voluntarily, we now have a pretty good idea of what the EEOC thinks employers should do in dealing with employees who are ...

Last year, Tommy Eden had a post about a gender identity lawsuit in which an employer in Georgia actually won summary judgment. A reader alerted me last night that a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed the decision in part yesterday, finding that the Plaintiff's mixed-motive claim should go to a jury. According to the appeals court decision, there ...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a "friend of the court" brief in a sexual orientation discrimination appeal, arguing that sexual orientation discrimination is "sex discrimination" prohibited by Title VII. (Thanks to EEOC General Counsel David Lopez for alerting me.)

I am a skeptic on this subject. Title VII was enacted in 1964, and legend has it that sex ...

Boy, the Detroit area seems to be in the front lines for the gender-identity wars.

As I've previously reported here, here, here, and here, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has a high-profile gender-stereotyping lawsuit going on against an area funeral home chain based on its discharge of a transgender employee. The funeral home is represented by the Alliance Defending ...