Transgender NSA Employee Challenges Trump Executive Order In Federal Court
The federal complaint says Trump’s directive recognizing only two sexes has led to workplace policies that strip a transgender NSA employee of long-standing legal protections.
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A transgender data scientist at the National Security Agency (NSA) has filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration, arguing that a sweeping executive order issued on Inauguration Day unlawfully erases her gender identity and violates long-established civil rights protections.
The plaintiff, Sarah O’Neill, is suing to block enforcement of an executive order signed by Donald Trump that requires the federal government to recognize only two “immutable” sexes, male and female, across all operations and official materials.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Maryland. It contends that the order is not a neutral administrative directive but a policy that directly targets transgender people working for the federal government.
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According to the complaint, the executive order “declares that it is the policy of the United States government to deny Ms. O’Neill’s very existence.”
Trump’s order was among a flurry of executive actions signed within hours of his return to office. O’Neill’s lawsuit argues that it quickly translated into concrete changes at the NSA that reshaped her day-to-day working conditions.
Since the executive action, O’Neill asserts that the agency has cancelled its policy recognizing her transgender identity and her “right to a workplace free of unlawful harassment.” The lawsuit also says the NSA has prohibited her from identifying her pronouns as female in written communications and barred her from using the women’s restroom at work.
Taken together, O’Neill contends, these measures have created a hostile work environment and stripped her of protections guaranteed under federal law.
At the center of the lawsuit is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, sometimes referred to as Section VII, which prohibits employment discrimination based on sex, among other protected categories. O’Neill argues that the Trump administration’s order and the resulting NSA policies directly conflict with how that law has been interpreted by the courts.
In 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation is a form of sex discrimination under Title VII.
In that decision, the court’s majority opinion stated, “We agree that homosexuality and transgender status are distinct concepts from sex,” the court said. “But, as we’ve seen, discrimination based on homosexuality or transgender status necessarily entails discrimination based on sex; the first cannot happen without the second.”
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O’Neill’s complaint leans heavily on that precedent, arguing that an executive order cannot override statutory protections enacted by Congress and clarified by the Supreme Court.
The lawsuit is sharply critical of the way the executive order frames gender identity. It points to language in the order that dismisses gender identity as “gender ideology” and rejects the possibility that someone’s gender identity can differ from their sex.
As the complaint puts it, “The Executive Order rejects the existence of gender identity altogether, let alone the possibility that someone’s gender identity can differ from their sex, which it characterizes as ‘gender ideology.’”
In addition to seeking a court order blocking enforcement of the executive order and the related NSA policies, O’Neill is asking for restoration of her workplace rights and protections, formal recognition of her gender identity at work, and financial damages for the harm she says she has suffered.
