WASHINGTON — Federal agency action and court decisions could bring about something that advocates have been unable to achieve legislatively: federal LGBT job protections.

Efforts to protect transgender people under existing sex discrimination bans have been percolating — and, for the most part, successful — since 2011. But moves by a key executive agency over the past six months demonstrate a renewed focus on the previously unsuccessful effort to provide protections to gay, lesbian, and bisexual people under the same laws.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and LGBT advocates have begun taking action and pressing their case, respectively, to encourage courts to take an expansive view of existing bans on sex discrimination to include discrimination against people based on both gender identity and sexual orientation.

The EEOC has, thorough its actions, informally taken the lead on the issue. In a comprehensive field memorandum issued Feb. 3 and obtained by BuzzFeed News, the agency argues that LGBT job protections should be — and within the agency, already are — available under current law.

Further still, the agency directs field offices to "alert" the main office "when they encounter [cases] with the potential for policy development," signifying an interest in strong enforcement of this interpretation. Specifically, the memo mentions the EEOC's interest in "claims related to discriminatory policies; insurance issues including benefits for same-sex couples or transgender individuals; access to facilities based on gender identity" and other questions about coverage of sexual orientation and gender identity under Title VII.

Multiple EEOC officials declined requests to discuss the memorandum on the record, and an EEOC Office of Communication and Legislative Affairs official who did respond to the request told BuzzFeed News she was unfamiliar with the field memo.

There is increasing support for the idea that the ban on sex discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 should be held to include transgender people even outside the EEOC. The Justice Department backed that interpretation of Title VII in December 2014 — with Attorney General Eric Holder calling it "the best reading" of the law. In January, the department filed a "statement of interest" in a case brought by a transgender woman who is suing Saks department store, asserting that she should be allowed to bring a lawsuit claiming anti-transgender discrimination under Title VII.

The argument that sexual orientation should be covered under Title VII's sex discrimination ban, however, is more of an uphill battle — particularly due to some early court rulings that held explicitly that sexual orientation discrimination is not protected by Title VII.

But those early rulings have been undermined by cases since then allowing sex-stereotyping claims under Title VII and barring same-sex sexual harassment — not to mention gay rights cases — and Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders executive director Janson Wu told BuzzFeed News that now is the time to expand the way the law is interpreted.

"Decades ago, the courts made a wrong turn when they separated out sexual orientation from sex discrimination protections. And we are trying to right that wrong," he said Tuesday. "When you are discriminating against somebody because of who they love or because of the sex of who they love, then you are discriminating against them on the basis of sex. You can't separate out those two things."

On Jan. 29, the EEOC agreed, issuing a "probable cause" notice in a claim GLAD brought on behalf of Jacqueline Cote, a Wal-Mart employee, and her wife, Diana Smithson. Cote was denied health insurance coverage for Smithson, who has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

"The aim of our lawsuit, first and foremost, is to achieve justice for Jackie and Dee, who have been wronged by Wal-Mart," Wu said. "They racked up over $100,000 in medical expenses because of Wal-Mart's discrimination." GLAD will seek conciliation of the claim now within the EEOC, but Wu said they are prepared to take the case to federal court in Massachusetts if that step fails. The LGBT legal group also has a second similar case pending in federal court in Connecticut.

He added, though, a larger goal: "Second, we absolutely believe it is right, legally, that discrimination against gay and lesbian people is illegal under sex discrimination prohibitions under Title VII," he said. "And it could not be clearer in this case, where, if Jackie was a man, she would have gotten those benefits. Period."

The EEOC has been a driving force behind this change, with part of its "strategic enforcement plan" adopted in 2012 specifically focused on LGBT protections.

In April 2012, the EEOC issued a decision asserting that Title VII's sex discrimination ban included a ban on discriminating against transgender people. That case, brought by Mia Macy, has been the basis for much of the movement in support of the transgender coverage effort — including the EEOC's first direct litigation, filed in September 2014, on the issue. Although most LGBT groups were loathe to discuss the issue publicly when serious efforts to pass legislation in the form of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act were afoot, many have spoken up more directly in recent months.

In August 2014, the EEOC acted again, issuing a decision that the sex discrimination ban often can include protections for people who are discriminated against because of their sexual orientation as well — a small, but significant, step toward sexual-orientation inclusion under Title VII.

"I think the EEOC is definitely mapping out a more robust way of thinking about these claims. Just like for discrimination against trans people, you can view it as a type of sex stereotype or you could view it, per se, as a form of taking gender into account," the ACLU's Joshua Block told BuzzFeed News.