A transgender employee of the National Security Agency is suing the Trump administration and seeking to block enforcement of a presidential executive order and other policies the employee says violate federal civil rights law.
Sarah O’Neill, an NSA data scientist who is transgender, is challenging President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day executive order that required the federal government, in all operations and printed materials, to recognize only two “immutable” sexes: male and female.
According to the lawsuit filed Monday in a U.S. District Court in Maryland, Trump’s order “declares that it is the policy of the United States government to deny Ms. O’Neill’s very existence.”
Since the initial executive action, O’Neill asserts that the NSA has cancelled its policy recognizing her transgender identity and “right to a workplace free of unlawful harassment,” and prohibited her from identifying her pronouns as female in written communications and using the women’s restroom at work.
O’Neill contends those policies and the orders behind them create a hostile work environment and violate Section VII of the Civil Rights Act, which the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled applies to gender identity.
In addition to restoring her workplace rights, O’Neill is seeking financial damages, underscoring the significant implications for civil rights and gender identity recognition in the workplace.
Trump’s order was part of a series of executive actions he took after taking office, which have prompted numerous legal challenges that are still ongoing.
