Equal Employment Opportunity Commission officials told BuzzFeed News that transgender workers who have faced discrimination in the workplace can file a federal claim.

AP / David Zalubowski

The federal agency that enforces anti-discrimination laws in workplaces told BuzzFeed News it “stands ready” to investigate complaints from transgender employees in North Carolina — where a new law bans transgender people from government building restrooms that match their gender identity.

That sort of restriction in workplaces is prohibited by federal law, said Chai Feldblum, one of five members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The agency held last year that banning a transgender employee from restrooms matching their gender in workplaces with 15 or more workers violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Feldblum and another EEOC official told BuzzFeed News that federal law supersedes local and state laws. Lawmakers in North Carolina vilified transgender women as male sex predators in discussions leading up to the passage in March of House Bill 2, which mandated that restrooms and other single-sex facilities may only be used by those with a matching sex on their birth certificate and repeals local LGBT nondiscrimination ordinances.



“Their claim will be taken, it will be investigated, and they will get help.”

“I want workers to know that even though there isn’t yet a federal Equality Act protecting them, even though there is not a state law protecting them, and even though city laws have been removed, they can walk into a federal agency called the EEOC,” said Feldblum, who was nominated to her seat on the commission by President Obama.

“Their claim will be taken, it will be investigated, and they will get help.” The North Carolina restrictions, by applying to publicly run facilities, affect restroom access for transgender government employees. North Carolina's state government says it is the state’s largest employer, with approximately 130,000 employees. The state's restroom restrictions also apparently extend to city and local government facilities; BuzzFeed News was not able to to determine how many people are employed by local jurisdictions in the state.

Justine Lisser, a spokesperson for the EEOC, told BuzzFeed News that EEOC officials have discussed the issue of transgender rights with the agency’s attorneys in North Carolina, adding, “Our staff there is well aware of the ramifications of the new state law and how our law supersedes it in the employment context.”

“Not only do we stand ready to accept such charges,” Lisser said, “we have filed lawsuits around the country on behalf of people discriminated against in employment due to their gender identity or transition.”

Investigators may not wait long to hear a complaint.

Joaquín Carcaño, a transgender man who works at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, may file a complaint with the EEOC for being banned from men’s restrooms on campus, according to his lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union. “[The North Carolina law] clearly tries to force government employers in North Carolina to violate Title VII, and we are monitoring those violations across the state and are considering filing a charge on behalf of our client,” Chase Strangio, an ACLU lawyer, told BuzzFeed News.

Skip Foreman / AP Protesters at a rally in Charlotte on March 31.

The ACLU currently represents Carcaño, along with several others, in a lawsuit that alleges the North Carolina law violates the Constitution and education-related civil rights laws; that suit does not specifically address employment discrimination. The law affects a wide net, from education and judiciary facilities to universities and “any other political subdivision of the state.” The latter term is not clearly defined in state law, but counties of North Carolina identify themselves as “political subdivisions” in official records, and a lawyer for the ACLU of North Carolina told BuzzFeed News the term is thought to encompass all counties, all cities, and all of their respective departments. As such, transgender workers in a wide range of government employment — from park groundskeepers to public health workers — are banned from work restrooms that match their gender identity under state law.