Trump Fires Two EEOC Members, Crippling the Organization

In yet another brazen attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), President Donald Trump has fired two Democratic members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency tasked with enforcing workplace anti-discrimination laws—including protections for LGBTQ+ workers. The move is not only unprecedented but could also be illegal, leaving the agency effectively paralyzed due to a lack of a required quorum.

Multiple sources confirm that late Monday night, Trump abruptly removed Charlotte A. Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels from their posts, along with the commission’s general counsel, Karla Gilbride. These firings follow a flurry of day one executive orders gutting DEI protections, further cementing Trump’s hostility toward marginalized workers. With Burrows and Samuels gone, Trump has installed Republican EEOC commissioner Andrea Lucas—an outspoken opponent of DEI policies and transgender rights—as the agency’s acting chair.

Lucas has made it clear where her priorities lie. In a statement last week, she vowed to focus on “rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination,” according to The New York Times. Meanwhile, the removal of Burrows and Samuels leaves the EEOC with just two remaining commissioners, short of the three-member quorum required to conduct essential business. As Samuels pointed out in a statement, this effectively “hobbles the agency’s ability to protect workers from unlawful discrimination.”

Illegal Power Grab?

The legality of Trump’s actions is already being challenged. Under federal law, EEOC commissioners are appointed to five-year terms and are supposed to serve “until their successors are appointed and qualified.” Trump has not named replacements for either Burrows or Samuels, making it unclear how he legally justifies their removal.

Samuels, who was ironically first appointed to the EEOC by Trump himself in 2020, was quick to respond, posting on X (formerly Twitter) that her firing “violates the law and represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the EEOC as an independent agency.” She confirmed that she is considering her legal options.

Burrows echoed that sentiment, announcing that she has retained a lawyer and is exploring all possible legal avenues. “Removing me, along with Commissioner Samuels, well before the expiration of our terms is unprecedented and will undermine the efforts of this independent agency to do the important work of protecting employees from discrimination,” she said.

The Backlash

Civil rights groups aren’t staying silent. On Tuesday, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) condemned the firings as “an unprecedented and illegal move aimed at upending enforcement of nondiscrimination protections for workers all across the country.”

“This lawless power grab exposes the administration’s true agenda: greenlighting discrimination, including harassment and bias, against all Americans,” HRC president Kelley Robinson says in a statement. “With hate crimes surging and state legislatures pushing record numbers of anti-LGBTQ+ bills, the administration is now knee-capping the federal watchdog that stands between millions of workers and unchecked discrimination. The federal courts must reject this blatant abuse of power.”

The stakes are high. As EEOC commissioners, Burrows and Samuels played a key role in solidifying federal protections for transgender workers. Under their leadership, the agency issued updated workplace guidelines that classified misgendering and denial of bathroom access as forms of sex-based discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Their removal throws these protections into uncertainty.

That work is now in jeopardy. As of January 29, the EEOC’s dedicated landing page for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Discrimination has vanished from its website. Meanwhile, the agency’s page on sex-based discrimination has been quietly updated with a note stating that it is “being reviewed for compliance with the law and executive orders and will be revised.”

Trump’s latest purge sends a chilling message: Workplace protections for marginalized workers—especially LGBTQ+ employees—are under direct attack. And with the EEOC now crippled, workers facing discrimination could soon have nowhere to turn.

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