Transgender people were an immediate target for the Trump administration upon taking office as explicitly spelled out in an Executive Order declaring that it was the “policy of the United States to recognizes two sexes, male and female.” To comply with the Executive Order, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which is the federal agency tasked with resolving employment discrimination claims, stopped investigating claims that involved transgender people. Further, it sought to withdraw from representation in all of the cases that the EEOC had filed on behalf of transgender plaintiffs under the prior administration. There were three such plaintiffs in Michigan—Asher Lucas, a transgender employee who was repeatedly bullied and harassed by a coworker, with management doing nothing to stop it, and Regina Zaviski and Savannah Nurme-Robinson, two of his coworkers who spoke out against the harassment. All three were fired by their employer after speaking out against the harassment. The EEOC had previously filed suit on their behalf, but reversed course under the new administration and sought to withdraw themselves from the case. Mr. Lucas was already represented by another attorney, but Ms. Zaviski and Ms. Nurme-Robinson were left scrambling to find legal representation. The ACLU of Michigan intervened in the lawsuit on their behalf and worked alongside Mr. Lucas’s attorney to reach a fair resolution for the case, which allowed it to settle in August 2025. (EEOC v. Brik Enterprises Incorporated, ACLU of Michigan Attorneys Syeda Davidson, Jay Kaplan, Bonsitu Kitaba-Gaviglio, and Dan Korobkin.)
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