Transgender NSA Employee Challenges Trump’s Executive Order in Court

Mon Dec 22 2025 23:14:30 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Sarah O’Neill, a transgender data scientist at the NSA, is suing the Trump administration over an executive order that denies recognition of gender identity, claiming it violates federal civil rights law.

Sarah O’Neill, a transgender employee at the National Security Agency (NSA), has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, seeking to block an executive order from Inauguration Day that mandates the government to recognize only two genders. O’Neill argues the order violates federal civil rights laws and has led to a hostile work environment, including bans on using her chosen pronouns and accessing the women's restroom. The lawsuit highlights the broader implications of discriminatory policies on gender identity in the workplace.

A transgender employee of the National Security Agency is suing the Trump administration and seeking to block enforcement of a presidential executive order and other policies the employee says violate federal civil rights law.

Sarah O’Neill, an NSA data scientist who is transgender, is challenging President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day executive order that required the federal government, in all operations and printed materials, to recognize only two 'immutable' sexes: male and female.

According to the lawsuit filed Monday in a U.S. District Court in Maryland, Trump’s order 'declares that it is the policy of the United States government to deny Ms. O’Neill’s very existence.'

Since Trump’s initial executive action, O’Neill asserts the NSA has canceled its policy recognizing her transgender identity and 'the right to a workplace free of unlawful harassment,' while 'prohibiting her from identifying her pronouns as female in written communications' and 'barring her from using the women’s restroom at work.'

O’Neill contends those policies and the orders behind them create a hostile work environment and violate Section VII of the Civil Rights Act. The Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that discrimination based on sex includes gender identity.

O’Neill’s lawsuit argues, 'The Executive Order rejects the existence of gender identity altogether, let alone the possibility that someone’s gender identity can differ from their sex, which it characterizes as 'gender ideology.' In addition to restoring her workplace rights and protections, O’Neill is seeking financial damages.

Trump’s order was part of numerous executive actions he enacted shortly after taking office, many of which are still facing legal challenges.