A transgender former employee of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission may proceed with his lawsuit alleging that EEOC discriminated against him and subjected him to a hostile work environment, a California federal magistrate judge held Friday.

The plaintiff, who worked for the agency as its director of information governance and strategy, resigned in June 2025 following a series of decisions made under the leadership of current Chair Andrea Lucas. Lucas had been appointed to acting chair by President Donald Trump months earlier and acted swiftly to shift EEOC’s stance on transgender discrimination.