EEOC Looks to Rescind Harassment Guidance

Author: Emily Scace, Brightmine Senior Legal Editor

January 16, 2026

A 2024 guidance document outlining the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) approach to workplace harassment may soon be scrapped in its entirety.

In December, the EEOC requested approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to rescind the guidance. This week, the agency announced that it plans to meet on January 22 to consider the rescission.

The guidance document, issued in May 2024, represented the first major update to the EEOC's approach to workplace harassment in nearly 25 years. Many of its updates - for example, discussions of harassment in remote work environments - were relatively uncontroversial, but sections that discussed gender identity issues, such as pronoun use and restroom access, proved more divisive.

The EEOC's action is not a surprise. The gender identity portions of the guidance were vacated by a federal district court in 2025, and EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas opposed the gender identity portions of the guidance when it was issued. Under her tenure, the EEOC has taken steps to remove gender identity-related content from the agency's internal and public-facing materials. The agency has also deemphasized enforcement of gender identity discrimination.

For much of 2025, the agency lacked a quorum and could not take significant actions, but the quorum was restored in October with the confirmation of Commissioner Brittany Bull Panuccio.

A group of former EEOC commissioners criticized the agency for seeking to rescind the guidance without public comment. In an open letter, the group characterized the move as "part of [the Trump Administration's] broader effort to weaken enforcement of federal employment anti-discrimination laws and, simultaneously, to diminish public understanding that federal law firmly prohibits harassment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity."

Guidance documents do not create new law or legal obligations, but they do offer insight into an agency's current priorities and interpretation of the laws they enforce.