​A pride flag, a bathroom ban, a job change: LGBTQ+ federal workers challenge Trump in court

Sarah O’Neill loved her job as a data scientist at the National Security Agency (NSA).

“The government before last year was what I would consider to be a model employer,” O’Neill said.

She started the job in 2019, two years after she started her transition to living as a woman.

“That wasn’t an issue at all,” she said. “Everybody was supportive.”

Everything changed in January 2025. That’s when President Donald Trump took office for a second term and signed an executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

The order stated that the federal government would recognize only “male” and “female” genders and that they were unchangeable from birth, denying the existence of transgender people like O’Neill.

O’Neill was informed that she was no longer allowed to use a women’s restroom, and should use one aligned with her biological birth sex.

As a government employee, O’Neill was used to following rules. But this one seemed almost impossible to follow. She found a few single-stall restrooms at work and used those, but O’Neill is a woman. Using a men’s room was not appropriate.

Across the Trump administration, LGBTQ+ federal workers describe being forced to choose between their jobs and their ability to fulfill their most basic human needs.

Shannon Leary, a partner at Gilbert Employment Law, has spent the past 19 years representing federal workers in discrimination lawsuits against the federal government. Such discrimination chips away at a person’s ability to do their job, she said.

“That impacts a person on so many different levels, both personally and professionally,” she said.

There has been a steady stream of those cases across all presidential administrations, Leary said. But something has changed with the advent of the second Trump administration.

“I personally have observed an increase in potential clients reaching out,” Leary said.

It’s unknown how many LGBTQ+ federal workers are suing the Trump administration for alleged discrimination, experts said. That’s because some of the suits are public, while others have been made as confidential complaints. But over the past year, the administration has faced a number of high-profile lawsuits over the ban on LGBTQ+ pride expression and refusal to let transgender workers use bathrooms that align with their genders.

Here are the suits advocates are watching most closely in the courts:

Sarah O’Neill, NSA

O’Neill, the data scientist, is suing her agency, saying the NSA violated Title VII and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by denying her existence as a transgender woman and creating a hostile work environment. Agency actions included “cancelling its policy recognizing her identity and right to a workplace free of unlawful harassment, prohibiting her from identifying her pronouns as female in written communications, purging references to transgender people from its materials, and barring her from using the women’s restroom at work,” her complaint alleged.

The agency did not respond to a request to comment on the lawsuit.

LeAnne Withrow, Illinois National Guard

LeAnne Withrow, a transgender woman who serves as the lead military and family readiness specialist for the Illinois National Guard, also enjoyed an accepting workplace until January 2025. Then, following Trump’s executive order, she was told she could no longer use a women’s room, she said.

Withrow has mostly made it work by using a single-stall bathroom close to her office.

“But this past week, for example, I had a two-hour meeting in a building across campus, where I have to badge in, and I’m two floors up,” she said, putting her far from the bathrooms she knew were safe to use. “It’s kind of humiliating in a way. … It feels very much like separate, but also not equal.”

Withrow filed a federal class-action lawsuit in November against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Withrow alleges that Trump’s order violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title VII, which prohibits discrimination against transgender workers on the basis of their sex.

OPM did not respond to a request to comment on the lawsuit.

David Maltinsky, FBI

Veteran FBI employee David Maltinsky was undergoing special agent training in Quantico, Virginia, when he received a letter from Director Kash Patel informing him he had been fired for displaying political messages at work, he said.

Maltinsky’s firing came after Trump signed an executive order ending all government diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Months prior, Maltinsky displayed a Pride flag that he had been given by the FBI Los Angeles Field Office. Maltinsky said he had asked multiple supervisors about keeping the flag displayed and been told he was not in violation of a policy.

“My supervisor and I talked, and he agreed, the flag is not violating anything that he sees,” he said. Maltinsky also asked the head attorney for the Los Angeles field office.

“And he also agreed, and he said, this does not violate any FBI policy, rule or regulation.”

When Maltinsky was fired, he filed suit against Patel. A spokesperson for the FBI said in a statement that the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

Danielle Mittereder, TSA

Transportation Security Officer Danielle Mittereder sued the Department of Homeland Security in November after supervisors made her stop doing airport pat-downs because she is transgender. The removal came after Trump’s January 20 executive order declaring two biological sexes. Mittereder alleges that she had excelled in her job and never received complaints until supervisors enacted the order, which also barred her from using bathrooms that aligned with her gender at work.

DHS did not respond to a request to comment.

HRC Foundation, federal health care

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the educational arm of the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ rights advocacy organization, is in the midst of preparing a class-action lawsuit against OPM for blocking insurance coverage for gender-affirming care ifor federal workers. The foundation says the policy forces employees to choose between their jobs and their health care.

“The Trump administration is weaponizing medical care to push transgender public servants and their families out of their jobs and back into the closet,” Human Rights Campaign Foundation President Kelley Robinson said in a statement. “This policy is textbook discrimination and we will continue to advance this litigation until our federal employees and their families get the respect, care and dignity they deserve.”

OPM did not respond to a request to comment on the suit.

Kate Sosin reports on LGBTQ+ issues for The 19th.

A Pride Flag, a Bathroom Ban, a Job Change: LGBTQ+ Federal Workers Challenge Trump in Court was originally published by The 19th and is republished with permission.