Dismissed Eeoc Commissioner Warns That Trump Plans To 'erase The Existence Of Trans People'

A member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission who was abruptly dismissed by President Donald Trump says she believes her firing and the move to reshape the panel that protects workers from discrimination is part of the administration's "agenda to erase the existence of trans people ."

Jocelyn Samuels, in an interview with The Associated Press, said the actions - aimed at implementing Trump's crackdown on certain diversity and gender rights policies - are unlawful and indicative of a looming wider rollback of work protections for women and minorities.

"My concern is that the refusal to recognize discrimination against trans people is both a way to scapegoat trans people and inflict immense damage on them," she said, and "a harbinger of the way that this administration will treat other applications of the law with which it disagrees."

Along with fellow EEOC commissioner Charlotte Burrows, Samuels was dismissed on Jan. 27, one week after Trump took office. Samuels said her dismissal letter pointed out "my support for what they termed radical Biden administration guidance for DEI initiatives and also mentioned my refusal to defend women against extreme gender ideology. Again, their words, not mine."

Samuels was nominated by Trump in 2020 and confirmed by the Senate. She was later reappointed by former President Joe Biden, with her term meant to extend until July 2026. Trump, she said, "found me to be an acceptable nominee for a Democratic seat in 2020. I am now being branded a radical extremist. I think it's the administration's perspectives that have changed, not mine."