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A transgender employee of the National Security Agency is suing the Trump administration, seeking to block enforcement of the president’s executive order and other policies the employee says violate federal civil rights law.
Sarah O’Neill, A NSA The data scientist, who is transgender, is challenging President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day executive order requiring the federal government, in all works and printed materials, to recognize only two “immutable” genders: male and female.
According to the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court marylandTrump’s order “declares that it is the policy of United States of America “The government will deny Ms. O’Neill even exists.”
white House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The order, which mirrors Trump’s 2024 campaign rhetoric, also inspired the policies O’Neill is challenging.
Since Trump’s initial executive action, O’Neill has claimed that the NSA has rescinded its policy recognizing her transgender identity and “right to a workplace free from unlawful harassment”, while “blocking her from identifying her pronouns as female in written communications” and “blocking her from using the women’s restroom at work.”
O’Neill argues that these policies and the orders behind them create a hostile work environment and violate Section VII of the Civil Rights Act. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that Section VII’s prohibition on discrimination based on sex applies to gender identity.
The court’s majority opinion stated, “We agree that homosexuality and transgender status are distinct concepts from sex.” “But, as we have seen, discrimination on the basis of homosexuality or transgender status necessarily involves discrimination on the basis of sex; the former cannot exist without the latter.”
O’Neill’s lawsuit argued, “The executive order completely rejects the existence of gender identity, let alone the possibility that someone’s gender identity might differ from their sex, which it characterizes as ‘gender ideology.’
In addition to restoring her workplace rights and protections, O’Neill is seeking financial damages.
Trump’s order was one of a series of executive actions he took hours after taking office. He has continued to use executive action aggressively in his second presidential term, leading to several legal challenges that are still working their way through the federal judiciary.