The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on Thursday voted to protect women’s intimate spaces – including bathrooms and locker rooms – in federal workplaces.
The EEOC voted 2-1 to affirm an appellate decision holding that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 doesn’t allow males to access women’s private spaces.
“Today’s opinion is consistent with the plain meaning of ‘sex’ as understood by Congress at the time Title VII was enacted, as well as longstanding civil rights principles: that similarly situated employees must be treated equally,” said EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas.
“When it comes to bathrooms, male and female employees are not similarly situated,” Lucas added. “Biology is not bigotry.”
Chair Lucas and Commissioner Brittany Panuccio, both nominees of President Donald J. Trump, voted in favor of the decision; Commissioner Kalpana Kotagal, a nominee of former President Joseph R. Biden, dissented.
The EEOC held that “Title VII permits a federal agency employer to maintain single-sex bathrooms and similar intimate spaces” and that the law “permits a federal agency employer to exclude employees, including trans-identifying employees, from opposite-sex facilities.”
The case stems from a male Army civilian IT specialist at Fort Riley, Kansas who used the Army’s male-designated bathrooms and locker rooms without incident before beginning to identify as a woman in the summer of 2025. He then requested to use female-designated bathrooms and locker rooms.
Management denied his request citing an executive order signed by President Trump which specifies that “intimate spaces … are designate by sex and not identity.” The civilian filed an Equal Employment Opportunity complaint which the Army dismissed. The complainant appealed, but the EEOC affirmed the Army’s judgement.
In dissent, Commissioner Kotagal claimed without explanation that the decision “suggests that transgender people do not exist.” In reality, the decision simply protects women from being forced to share private spaces with men.
Kotagal argued that males who can’t access female restrooms “[matching] their gender identity … often starve and dehydrate themselves.”
Chai Feldblum, an LGBT activist who served as an EEOC commissioner after being nominated by former President Barack Obama, posted a comment on Kotagal’s LinkedIn page praising her dissent: “Thank you, as always, for your clear voice!”
Yet Commissioner Kotagal failed to consider how forcing women to share private spaces with males harms their privacy, dignity and safety.
The EEOC decision, in contrast, lays out those concerns in detail:
The interest in single-sex privacy is especially heightened for women attending to hygiene related to menstruation, pregnancy, or lactation. No man will ever experience a period, bear a child, or nurse and infant, and we do not think it improper that female employees would expect to manage their unique needs in a space accessible only to other women. …
Women have a vital privacy interest in using a workplace bathroom or similar intimate space outside the presence of men.
While the decision applies only to federal agencies, it nevertheless represents a remarkable shift at the EEOC. Just two years ago, the agency attempted to redefine “sex” in Title VII to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” in its “Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace.”
The change would have forced millions of American women to share private spaces with males in the workplace; required American workers to use their coworkers “preferred pronouns;” and qualified that “misgendering” or “deadnaming” a coworker creates a “hostile work environment.”
The updated guidance would have even applied to private sector employers, including faith-based employers like Focus on the Family.
In January 2026, the EEOC voted to rescind the updated Harassment Guidance after a newly-constituted Republican majority was established at the agency.
“The Harassment Guidance was an unlawful document and overstepped our authority,” Chair Lucas told the Daily Citizen in a recent interview. “There are two sexes.”
The case is Selina v. Driscoll.
Related articles and resources:
Andrea Lucas Leads the EEOC: Restoring Agency With Truth and Common Sense
Eighteen States Sue EEOC Over Workplace Mandates Endangering Women and Free Speech
EEOC Releases Major Guidance Ending Many Workplace Protections for Women
Photo from Shutterstock.
