Texas Federal Court Vacates Portions of EEOC Harassment Guidance Protecting LGBTQ+ Workers

On May 15, 2025, a Texas federal court issued a ruling that vacates portions of an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) harassment guidance that expanded the definition of sexual harassment under Title VII to include harassment based on “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”

Released in April 2024 under the Biden administration, the updates made to EEOC’s ‘Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace’ cited the 2020 Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that terminating an employee for being homosexual or transgender was illegal. The revised guidance had stated that misgendering employees, barring them from dressing in line with their gender identity, and denying them access to appropriate bathrooms could constitute workplace harassment.

Brought by the state of Texas and the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, the case challenged the EEOC’s authority to impose those standards on employers. In the opinion, the judge wrote that the EEOC’s harassment guidance was “inconsistent with the text, history, and tradition of Title VII and recent Supreme Court precedent.” He wrote that the EEOC’s interpretation of the Bostock v. Clayton County decision was too broad, and the agency guidance imposed “mandatory standards” on employers, even though the guidance is not legally binding. The ruling invalidated all portions of the EEOC harassment guidance that defined “sex harassment” as including harassment based on “sexual orientation and “gender identity,” as well as a section of the guidance that included examples of what harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity might look like.

While the court’s decision was clear, the EEOC is limited in their ability to modify the harassment guidance. The EEOC currently lacks the number of commissioners to make the quorum that is required to vote on policy and regulatory changes, including changes to the guidance in question. As the guidance cannot be modified by the EEOC until a quorum is in place, the agency has labeled the vacated portions of the guidance that are currently posted on the agency’s website. EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas voted against the guidance as a commissioner when it was published in 2024 and has been vocal in her opposition to it since being named Acting Chair. It can be expected that the harassment guidance document will be modified or fully rescinded once a third EEOC commissioner is confirmed, and a quorum is established again.