A Wisconsin man named Spencer Wimmer is requesting that the Trump administration step in after he claims he was fired for not using preferred pronouns that are incompatible with a person’s biological sex, forcing him to choose between his employment and his religious beliefs.
Wimmer, who is a devoted Christian, contends that private citizens continue to face discrimination in the workplace as a result of the Trump administration’s efforts to repeal DEI and gender ideology workplace requirements.
After submitting a religious discrimination complaint to the Trump US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) via the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), he expressed his hope that President Donald Trump will take action.
Wimmer claimed in an interview that he had put a lot of effort into becoming a “model employee” during his five years at Generac and was in good standing with the business after receiving multiple promotions and favourable performance reviews.
He stated that he anticipated a lengthy and successful career with the power equipment company.
Until he was abruptly called into a human resources meeting and questioned about his refusal to use someone’s preferred pronouns.
Wimmer claims that the reason he doesn’t use preferred pronouns is because he has a strong religious and biblical conviction that there are only two genders and that a person cannot change between them.
“I have worked with transgender people before, and I even had a good working relationship with one of my colleagues who was transgender,” he explained.
However, Wimmer was chastised for “unprofessional” behaviour after he had to explain to HR that he could not use his transgender coworkers’ preferred pronouns in good conscience.
Generac HR officials told Wimmer that his request to abstain from using transgender pronouns due to his faith “did not make any sense,” according to WILL, the firm that represents him. Wimmer received a written disciplinary action note that said, “It is against the company’s Code of Business Conduct and No Harassment Policy to refer to an employee or subordinate by their preferred name or pronouns.”
On April 2, Wimmer lost his job as a supervisor at Generac Power Systems after a month of claiming he was singled out and harassed because of his faith.
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WILL claims he was led from the building and denied the opportunity to retrieve his personal belongings.
The entire episode, according to Wimmer, was “heartbreaking.”
It was “very emotional having everything kind of ripped out from under me,” Wimmer said, adding that he was asked to choose between his livelihood and his love for God and his beliefs.
WILL claims in its EEOC complaint that Generac violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which forbids discrimination in the workplace on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin.
WILL claims that even though Generac hasn’t been the subject of any harassment complaints, he still violated Wimmer’s rights.
Attorney Cara Tolliver of WILL stated that she thinks his case has a wider significance that may affect Americans nationwide.
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According to her, Wimmer’s case challenges the legitimacy of an employer’s forced gender affirmation policy against an employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs, putting recent Supreme Court precedent set in the 2023 case Groff v. DeJoy to the test.
“Employers, I think, have kind of become seemingly fixated on a lot of identity politics in the workplace, including the topic of gender identity,” she stated. “But it’s crucial to keep in mind that even where Title VII may provide some protection to employees against workplace discrimination and harassment on the basis of a gender identity, this does not supersede or eliminate Title VII protections against religious discrimination and the fact that religious discrimination is illegal.”
