Transgender woman sues for sexual discrimination against Salem DEQ office
A sign at a Virginia Department of Environmental Quality office.
A transgender woman from Roanoke County is suing her former employer, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, for sexual discrimination, claiming she was harassed and ultimately fired because of her gender identity.
Brooke Anne Carter, who worked as an air permit writer and environmental specialist for DEQ’s Blue Ridge Regional Office in Salem, claims that she was teased by coworkers and forced to use male pronouns.
Carter had told her supervisors that she identified as a woman and preferred the words “she” and “her,” according to her lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.
The lawsuit accuses DEQ of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that discrimination based on gender identity is inherently sexual discrimination.
Despite that, “DEQ created a culture of sex-based discrimination, repression, hostility, inability for advancement, and retaliation,” the lawsuit contends.
A spokeswoman for the agency declined to comment Tuesday, citing a policy of not discussing pending litigation.
What is the alleged discrimination?
About a year after she was hired in 2022, Carter informed her boss that she was transgender and requested an accommodation allowing her to telework from home until the restrooms in the DEQ office were designated as unisex.
At the time of Carter’s request, gender dysphoria was recognized by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as a recognized disability protected by federal law, according to the lawsuit.
While she was initially given permission to work from her Roanoke County home, Carter was later refused a second request and was told by human resources that the first accommodation never should have been granted, the pleading states.
Carter claims that she was teased by her colleagues — one of whom refused to speak to her — and left out of meetings that were essential to her job. The lawsuit also alleges that she was sometimes forced to use her “dead name,” the male identity she went by before transitioning.
After she complained of discrimination, Carter was given more difficult tasks and received increased scrutiny in what the lawsuit describes as setting her up for failure.
She later filed requests for medical leave that were never processed, she claims, and was wrongfully terminated in February 2024. In a second count of retaliation, the lawsuit states that DEQ’s conduct “was based upon Ms. Carter’s sex in that they would not have behaved as they did towards her had she not been a transgender female.”
The lawsuit, filed April 29, asks that she be reinstated to her job and awarded an unspecified amount of damages for lost wages, emotional distress and other harms.
Carter’s attorney Tommy Strelka, a Roanoke-area workers' rights specialist who frequently files lawsuits on behalf of employees, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Laurence Hammack (540) 981-3239
