A judge resisted Trump’s order on gender identity. EEOC has just drawn him

The federal agency responsible for protecting civil rights of workers dismissed an administrative judge from New York who opposed the Directives of the White House, in particular the executive order of President Donald Trump decree men and women as two “immutable” sexes.

In February, the administrative judge Karen Ortiz, who worked at the New York office of the US Equality Equality Commission, qualified Trump’s order as “ethics” and criticized the acting president Andrea Lucas – the choice of Trump to direct the agency – to comply by interrupting the work on legal affairs involving claims transgender. In an email copied to more than 1,000 colleagues, Ortiz pushed Lucas to resign.

Ortiz was dismissed Tuesday after being placed on administrative leave last month. The EEOC refused on Wednesday to comment on the termination, saying that it does not comment on personnel questions.

In response to the President’s order declaring two unchanging sexes, the EEOC has decided to decrease at least seven of its current legal affairs in the name of transgender workers who have filed complaints of discrimination. The agency, which applies American laws on the fight against discrimination in the workplace, also classifies all new cases linked to gender identity as its lowest priority.

Actions have reported a major difference in the previous interpretation of the EEOC of the Civil Rights Act.

In his February e-mail of February in February criticizing the agency’s efforts to comply with Trump’s order, Ortiz told Lucas: “You are not able to be our chair, even less a license to practice the law.” The letter was disclosed on Reddit, where it won more than 10,000 “UP votes”. Many users have applauded its author.

The EEOC subsequently revoked its email privileges for about a week and issued a written reprimand for “discreet behavior”.

Ortiz said that she continued to “stimulate the alarm” on the treatment by the Transgender Agency and complainants who do not comply with gender and transmits her opposition to the agency’s actions. She sent an email on April 24 to Lucas and several other internal messaging groups with the object line, “if you are looking for electricity, here is the power” and a link with tears for the success of Fears in 1985 “everyone wants to govern the world”.

She challenged her termination proposed earlier this month, arguing in a document submitted by a union representative whom she adhered to her oath by calling for a behavior that she believes to be illegal.

Ortiz “considers the actions of the agency concerning the complainants LGBTQIA + for having made the EEOC a hostile environment for LGBTQIA + workers”, and believes that leadership has “abandoned the main mission of the EEOC”, according to the document.

The judge was hired to work at the EEOC during the first Trump administration, and even if she was not in disagreement with certain policies, “she took no measure because there was no ostensible illegality which forced her to do so,” said the document. “What is happening under the current administration is unprecedented.”

The letter requested the withdrawal of the termination proposed by Ortiz, the deletion of all the disciplinary documents from his personal file, and that is authorized to “continue to do his job”.

The notice of termination of six pages came anyway. In this document, the chief administrative judge Regina Stephens qualified the actions of Ortiz “unpleasant and non -professional”, and concluded that the “performance of the work of Ortiz is affected” by its disagreements with the current decrees and the leadership management of the EEOC.

The opinion also allegedly alleged that the media traffic of Ortiz email had “affected the agency’s reputation and credibility”. He cited an article by the Associated Press which quoted Ortiz by saying that she supported his statements by e-mail as proof that his behavior would not change with “rehabilitation”.

In a Wednesday telephone interview with the Associated Press, Ortiz said that the news of its dismissal was “very sad”, although not surprising. “I think the agency has now become something that, I don’t know if I would even really like to work there. They have lost their way,” she said.

Lucas defended his decision to delete prosecution on behalf of transgender workers during his confirmation hearing before a senatorial committee last week. She recognized that transgender workers are protected by civil rights laws, but said that her agency was not independent and must comply with the presidential orders.

Ortiz said that she had traveled from New York to Washington “on my own penny, my own time” to attend the hearing. “I had to be there,” she said, adding that she had left notes of thanks for the senators who “set the feet of Andrea Lucas to fire”.

Ortiz said that she was not sure of what comes for her, but only that it will imply fighting for civil rights. And in the short term, collect more quarters of walking on voluntary dogs. “I will continue to fight for the LGBTQ community in all possible ways,” she told AP.

She added: “You need courage to take a stand, and be willing to be dismissed, and to lose a six -digit job, health insurance, and the prestige of the title of` `judge ”, but I will also serve an example for future lawyers and young lawyers that a job title is not everything, and it is more important to remain faithful to your values.”