WASHINGTON, D.C. — A civilian employee of the Illinois National Guard has filed a class-action lawsuit challenging a Trump-Vance administration policy that blocks intersex and transgender federal employees from using bathrooms aligned with their affirmed gender, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The ACLU, along with the ACLU of D.C., the ACLU of Illinois and Democracy Forward, filed the complaint on behalf of LeAnne Withdrow.
Withdrow, from Springfield, Illinois, is a civilian employee for the Illinois National Guard and serves as a lead military and family readiness specialist. As a former staff sergeant for the National Guard, she has earned multiple awards and commendations, including the Illinois National Guard Abraham Lincoln Medal of Freedom, according to the ACLU press release.
According to the release, after President Trump issued the Jan. 20 executive order, officials from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the U.S. Department of Defense and the federal National Guard Bureau required all employees to use restrooms that aligned with their “biological sex.” Shortly after, Withdrow was no longer permitted to use the women’s restroom as instructed by her supervisors.
In response, Withdrow filed a class-action complaint disputing the order to the Army National Guard Bureau Equal Opportunity Office (NGB-EO), and soon after to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). However, “both the NGB-EO and EEOC failed to resolve the matter. Ms. Withrow has now gone to court to stop this unlawful and discriminatory order,” the press release states.
The lawsuit argues that the executive order and its implementation violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex discrimination in employment. In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Title VII protects transgender workers from sex-based discrimination.
Shana Knizhnik, a senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, said, “No federal employee should have to face hostility and discrimination while they are working to serve the American people.” She added, “We look forward to demonstrating to the court that this unlawful executive order not only denies the existence of transgender and intersex employees, it is yet another attempt by the Trump administration to target and punish transgender people for simply being who they are. There is no place for such blatant discrimination in our government or society.”
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The only answer to this is trans people are going to have to use restrooms designated for all sexes which are usually private.
Just as trans people have rights so do biological women who shouldn’t have to share a restroom or locker facility with a man.