The EEOC's internal conflict: Sex vs. gender identity

Credit: Vitalii Vodolazskyi/Adobe Stock

There is a battle of the sexes going on at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Unlike the epic 1973 tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King, this battle of the sexes is not likely to have a clear winner. In fact, some would argue there are only losers in this match. The EEOC has announced that it will no longer recognize the existence of gender identity or sexual orientation as a form of sex discrimination under the agency’s interpretation of federal law.

In what can be heralded as the most unsurprising move of the new Trump administration, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14168 (EO 14168), titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which, among other things, directed federal agencies to enforce “the freedom to express the binary nature of sex and the right to single-sex spaces in the workplace” and remove all existing statements, policies, forms, communications or messages promoting gender ideology. In an assault on what Trump labels “gender ideology extremism,” EO 14168 mandates that the federal government shall recognize only two sexes—male and female.