Published October 28, 2024
On October 28, 2024, EPPC scholars Rachel N. Morrison and Natalie Dodson submitted a public comment on the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) notice that its Anti-Harassment Intake Summary Sheet will include protected equal employment opportunity (EEO) categories of gender identity, sexual orientation, and transgender status.
As the scholars wrote:
We support USAID’s efforts to prevent and remedy unlawful harassment of its employees, volunteers, and contractors. USAID, however, improperly implies that gender identity, sexual orientation, and transgender status are protected EEO categories without direction by Congress or the Supreme Court.
The scholars raised four points. First, Congress has rejected all legislation attempting to make gender identity, sexual orientation, or transgender status protected EEO categories. Second, the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock was limited to hiring and firing (not harassment) and did not extend to gender identity. Third, numerous courts have enjoined the Biden-Harris administration’s unlawful attempts to make gender identity, sexual orientation, and transgender status protected categories. Fourth, maintaining gender identity, sexual orientation, and transgender status as protected EEO categories raises free speech, religious freedom, privacy, and safety concerns, including under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The scholars urged USAID to remove gender identity, sexual orientation, and transgender status from the list of protected EEO categories on its Anti-Harassment Intake Summary Sheet.
Rachel N. Morrison is a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where she directs EPPC’s Administrative State Accountability Project. An attorney, her legal and policy work focuses on religious liberty, health care rights of conscience, the right to life, nondiscrimination, and civil rights.
