The chart shows that, in 2013, 160 such claims were brought. In 2014, 140 such claims were brought through the third quarter, for a total of 300.
How many of these did the EEOC find had reasonable cause to believe that prohibited discrimination had occurred?
In 2013, 6%, or 7 of the 115 cases resolved that year were found to have reasonable cause. That is about in line with the general run of EEOC charges, which usually clocks in at between 3% to 6%. In 2014, however, only 1.5%, or 1 of the 66 cases resolved that year were found to have reasonable cause. However, this low reasonable cause rate is likely an artifact of the 9 months of data available for 2014, instead of the 12 months listed for 2013, and the related fact that 74 cases are still pending. If there are two more reasonable cause findings by December 31 of this year, and the resolution of cases carries at the same rate, that will bring the percentage up to around 3.5%. They also might be counting dates in an unexpected way, because I myself have three cases in which a reasonable cause finding was found during the first three quarters of 2014.
The EEOC also lists two litigations brought by it against employers in federal court involving gender identity, one of which is a case I brought to the EEOC on behalf of my client, Brandi Branson.
There is also a link to amicus briefs filed by the Commission on LGBT issues, one of which is the Commission's amicus brief in another case I brought to federal court, in the Northern District of Georgia, Chavez v. Credit Nation Auto Sales, LLC, on behalf of my client Jennifer Chavez. While the EEOC amicus brief, and an accompanying amicus brief filed by Lambda Legal, TLDEF, TLC, NCTE, GLAD, Freedom to Work and PFLAG National, were instrumental in finding that Ms. Chavez had a right to file her charge of discrimination based on gender identity, the District Court dismissed the case on summary judgment on another ground. The case is now on appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
