NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) — The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced Oct. 6 that First Tower Loan LLC, a Flowood, Mississippi. financial loan company, will strengthen its discrimination policies after allegations of sex discrimination.
According to the EEOC, First Tower Loan violated federal law when it fired Tristan Broussard because he is transgender and failed to conform to the company’s expectations of gender. Broussard had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The EEOC then intervened in the lawsuit in September 2015. Broussard later entered arbitration with the company and was awarded $53,000 in damages. The EEOC continued to pursue the case because no injunctive relief had been issued.
Now an 18-month consent decree mandates that First Tower Loan strengthen its discrimination policy by prohibiting transgender discrimination or discrimination based on whether a person conforms to stereotypes about gender.
"We are pleased First Tower Loan agreed to resolve this case by entering into this consent decree," said supervisory trial attorney Eduardo Juarez of the EEOC's San Antonio Field Office. "This agreement will help protect other employees from discrimination based on gender identity, transgender status or sex stereotyping."