15 states sue as LGBT workers and Trans Students are now protected under updated rules

President Johnson reaches to shake hands with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after presenting the civil rights leader with one of the 72 pens used to sign the Civil Rights Act. AP-AP I remember that day. I was six and shortly after felt empowered to tell my parents I was female. That's when the beatings began. We have come a long way but the fight is far from over.

EEOC workplace rules were updated Monday for the first time in 25 years 19th reports to now include LGBT workers.

And title IX rules have been updated to protect transgender students prompting conservative states to sue. The Republican led states where trans students rights have been specifically denied are where the preponderance of claims were filed which led to the updated Title IX rules.

Some legal experts believe the new Title IX rules — which clarify that gender identity is covered by laws prohibiting sex discrimination — are likely to withstand conservative challenges, Chalkbeat reports. In the meantime, teachers and school administrators are caught between federal law, which usually takes precedence, and state law, which can loom larger in the classroom.

And queer youth and their allies say their states’ defiance of federal law reinforces the idea that their existence is a problem and that their (state) government is targeting them.

“You already had kids who literally did not use the bathroom at school,” said A’Niya Robinson, an advocacy strategist at the ACLU of Louisiana. “They were afraid that they would be targeted for just completing a bodily function. These rules are a reprieve from kids having to experience that, and then to have your state want to undo that, it’s just unfortunate.”

In other news, LGBTQ+ workers who are misgendered by their employers or blocked from accessing restrooms consistent with their gender identity will now get additional workplace protections as a result of new guidance issued Monday by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

It’s the first time in 25 years that the EEOC has issued new rules on workplace discrimination — a change precipitated in part by the 2020 Supreme Court case Bostock v. Clayton County, the landmark decision that found that LGBTQ+ workers are protected from workplace discrimination.