TL;DR

• A transgender federal employee sued to stop Trump’s ban on workers using bathrooms matching their gender identity.
• Plaintiff LeAnne Withrow says she must starve herself at work to avoid using restrooms.
• The lawsuit argues the ban violates Title VII and the Administrative Procedure Act.
• Legal groups including the ACLU and Democracy Forward represent her.
• The case challenges sweeping anti-trans federal policies under Trump’s second term.

TRUMP’S BATHROOM BAN JUST GOT ITS FIRST LEGAL SMACKDOWN

The Trump administration’s crusade against transgender Americans just ran into a brick wall — and her name is LeAnne Withrow.

Withrow, a transgender civilian employee of the Illinois National Guard, has slapped the federal government with a blistering class-action lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s January executive order banning federal workers from using bathrooms that match their gender identity. And the details in her complaint? They’re gut-wrenching.

According to the filing, Withrow has spent every workday since the ban starving herself and limiting water just to avoid needing to use the restroom — the kind of physical torture no employee should ever endure, let alone at a government job that’s supposed to serve the public.

“Planning to use the restroom is a constant concern, all day, every day,” her lawyers wrote. In other words: the policy is so cruel, it literally forces people to dehydrate themselves to survive a work shift.

A BAN BUILT ON DISCRIMINATION — AND SHE’S READY TO PROVE IT

Withrow’s lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in Washington, D.C., says Trump’s bathroom ban is flatly illegal — a direct violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which the Supreme Court made crystal clear in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020): discrimination based on gender identity is discrimination based on sex.

The suit also calls the rule “arbitrary and capricious,” alleging it violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the same law that stops presidents from making up new rules just because they feel like it.

The complaint names dozens of federal agencies as defendants, making this a sweeping challenge to one of the most aggressive anti-trans policies of Trump’s second term.

The White House and DOJ? Silent. Shocked, we’re sure.

THE FIRST CRACK IN A MUCH LARGER ATTACK

This lawsuit is the first direct hit on the bathroom ban — but it’s far from the only anti-trans strike coming from the Trump team.

• The Supreme Court allowed Trump’s revived transgender military ban to take effect.
• Passport applicants must now use their sex assigned at birth.
• The EEOC has quietly scrubbed its website of gender identity protections.
• Multiple civil rights lawsuits on behalf of trans workers have been dropped.

This administration’s message couldn’t be clearer: erasing trans Americans from public life is a political priority.

But Withrow isn’t having it.

THE LEGAL CAVALRY ARRIVES

Withrow is being represented by a powerhouse coalition:

• The American Civil Liberties Union
• The ACLU of Illinois
• Democracy Forward
• Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer

Michelle Garcia from the ACLU of Illinois said it best: it’s absurd that Withrow can use the appropriate restroom anywhere in Illinois — except federal property.

“The Trump Administration’s reckless policies are discriminatory and must be reversed,” Garcia said.

The lawsuit seeks to overturn the ban entirely, reinstate rights for all affected employees, and prevent the government from targeting transgender or intersex workers ever again.

THE LGBTQ IMPACT: MORE THAN JUST BATHROOMS

Let’s be clear: this isn’t really about bathrooms. It’s about dignity — and safety.

Trump’s ban forces trans employees to choose between humiliation, medical risk, or career jeopardy. It intensifies stigma in workplaces where many trans employees already face pressure to stay closeted. And it encourages agencies to ignore Supreme Court precedent in a slippery-slope attempt to dismantle hard-won civil rights.

The community knows this playbook: start with restrooms, end with everything else.

And that’s why this lawsuit matters far beyond Camp Lincoln.

BOTTOM LINE

LeAnne Withrow is doing what the government won’t — standing up for transgender Americans.

Her case may be the first shot across the bow, but make no mistake: the bathroom ban is a high-stakes flashpoint in the fight over whether trans federal workers will be treated as equal citizens or political targets.

If the courts follow the law — and their own precedents — Trump’s bathroom ban is on borrowed time.