The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency tasked with protecting workers from illegal discrimination, inked an unprecedented settlement with a conservative Christian employer association that could have long-term, wide-ranging consequences.
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that → task → consequences
The lawsuit that led to the settlement was in reaction to EEOC guidance issued under the Biden administration and after a 2020 Supreme Court ruling that Title VII protects against gender identity discrimination.
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VII → lead → discrimination
In the settlement, reached on August 18, the EEOC pledged to not pursue any claims of gender identity-based discrimination against the Christian Employers Alliance — and made the pledge in perpetuity.
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EEOC → reach → perpetuity
The EEOC provides free investigation into complaints of discrimination and, in some cases, will bring lawsuits on behalf of employees at no cost to the plaintiffs.
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EEOC → provide → plaintiffs
Now, however, anyone who works for a company with membership in the Christian Employers Alliance who believes they suffered gender identity-based discrimination won’t be able to avail themselves of the EEOC’s process.
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they → work → process
The settlement also contains an unusual provision: It applies not just to the more than 20,000 employers that are already members in the Christian Employers Alliance, but also to any future members, so long as they are members at the time that any claimed discrimination occurred.
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discrimination → contain → time
That means that any employer that decides to sign up for Christian Employers Alliance membership will get the benefit of blanket protection from the EEOC against all claims of gender identity discrimination, such as harassing someone for being nonbinary or firing them for coming out as trans.
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that → mean → trans
“I am not aware of any settlement that just creates in perpetuity a freedom from investigation,” said Karla Gilbride, a former EEOC general counsel under President Joe Biden who is now at the American Civil Liberties Union.
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who → create → Union
“I’ve never seen an organization get a settlement that allows protection to future members in this way.
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that → see → way
The settlement will stay in place even if Andrea Lucas, the current Republican chair of the EEOC, is replaced with a Democratic chair under a future Democratic president.
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Lucas → stay → president
(The Christian Employers Alliance declined to comment, and the EEOC did not respond to an inquiry.
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EEOC → decline → inquiry
In Perpetuity
The CEA notes the blanket protection on its webpage for signing up new members.
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CEA → note → members
“Join CEA and stop being exposed,” the site says, under a banner that reads “Protected the Moment You’re In.”
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You → join → Moment
“It’s like they’re selling an insurance policy against EEOC investigations,” said Gilbride.
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Gilbride → ’ → investigations
“I’m concerned about the incentive that that creates for employers, especially when the organization is explicitly marketing itself in that way.
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organization → ’m → way
The settlement also has no expiration date.
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settlement → have → date
Nearly all settlements, Gilbride said, have an end point; they will remain in force for a certain number of years, during which a court will monitor to make sure the terms are met.
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terms → say → which
“What makes this settlement unusual,” she said, “is that, in exchange for agreeing to dismiss certain claims in this case, the EEOC is committing to these terms for what seems to be an indefinite amount of time.
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what → make → time
The settlement is of a piece with the EEOC’s recent turn toward policies aligned with the aims of the Christian right in the United States.
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settlement → align → States
Lucas, the commission chair, has already pursued a broad agenda of eliminating trans rights.
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Lucas → pursue → rights
The Christian Employers Alliance has been at the forefront of pushing conservative religious views into policy.
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Alliance → push → policy
The alliance was represented in its EEOC lawsuit by Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative legal group behind the overthrow of Roe v. Wade.
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alliance → represent → Wade
The Christian employers’ group also boasted in its promotional materials for new members that, like the protection from gender discrimination complaints, a court injunction it secured against the government that allows members to refuse to cover contraception will “cover you the moment you join.”
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you → boast → you
The blanket carveout for members of the Christian Employers Alliance is also out of the ordinary for giving across-the-board protections from complaints.
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carveout → give → complaints
The EEOC already has ways to consider the rights of religious employers, but they require going through established processes.
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they → have → processes
These employers, for instance, can raise a religious defense against a complaint of discrimination, and the agency will then consider it.
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agency → raise → it
The new settlement, however, blocks EEOC investigators from even looking into a complaint of discrimination and evaluating the merits; instead, it stops all gender identity discrimination complaints against these employers dead in their tracks.
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it → block → tracks
All the agency can do is tell workers to sue their employers on their own in the courts.
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agency → do → courts
“That categorical exclusion from investigation based on being a member of a group is unprecedented,” Gilbride said.
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Gilbride → base → group
These victories for the Christian Employers Alliance closely mirror much of what the organization had originally sought when it filed for an injunction as part of its lawsuit.
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it → mirror → lawsuit
In its request, the group sought a permanent ban on the EEOC enforcing gender identity rights against its “present and future members.
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EEOC → seek → members
In early 2025, Lucas, the current commission chair, hired Shannon Royce to be her chief of staff.
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Lucas → hire → staff
Royce’s job immediately prior to accepting her role at the EEOC was president of the Christian Employers Alliance, which she led in 2021 at the time of the lawsuit over gender identity discrimination.
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she → accept → discrimination
“Normally a settlement happens because the parties don’t want to keep litigating,” Gilbride noted.
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Gilbride → happen → ?
“But it seems like there might be a lot of alignment between the two sides in this particular situation, and that raises questions about whether the settlement is in the broader public interest or whether it’s just in the interest of these particular individuals and organizations.”
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it → seem → individuals
The Anti-Trans Agenda
The settlement fits with the anti-trans agenda pursued by Lucas, the EEOC chair.
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settlement → fit → Lucas
One of her first actions was to announce that a priority for the agency is “to defend the biological and binary reality of sex.”
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priority → announce → sex
She instructed agency staff to focus on pursuing such cases, such as complaints from cis women of trans women sharing bathrooms with them.
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She → instruct → them
Harassment guidance that included protection from gender identity-based harassment and federal workers’ ability to pursue complaints of gender identity discrimination were both eliminated under Lucas’s leadership.
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that → include → leadership
Lucas also withdrew the EEOC from lawsuits that it had brought on behalf of transgender and nonbinary workers, and she halted the processing of all worker claims of gender identity discrimination.
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she → withdraw → discrimination
…and 37 more, not listed.
