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Ensuring Bedrock Nondiscrimination Laws Continue to Protect LGBTQ+ People At Work and Beyond

We are in federal court representing Lillian Bernier, a transgender woman who works nights in a manufacturing plant.

Lillian’s employer, Turbocam, refuses to provide equal workplace benefits, namely coverage for gender transition medical care, in its employee health plan.

Turbocam says it should be exempt from laws that require equal treatment for transgender people because of the owner’s religious beliefs. But Turbocam is represented by conservative legal groups who are also arguing, as part of a concerted national effort, that being transgender is not real.

Today our cases are not just about sustaining legal protections. They are about rebutting attempts to delegitimize transgender people’s very existence.

GLAD Law is fighting for Lillian, who, like most Americans, relies on her job to support her family and get coverage for their medical care. We are fighting to ensure that our nondiscrimination laws, such as Title VII and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), continue to protect our community.

“GLAD Law is developing legal theories that will be building blocks for addressing new attempts to weaken our bedrock nondiscrimination laws,” said Chris Erchull, GLAD Law Senior Staff Attorney. “We have a strong case to make on Lillian’s behalf and a victory will help us chart a path forward to advance LGBTQ+ rights even in this hostile political climate.”

Lillian is a skilled worker at New Hampshire-based manufacturer Turbocam, Inc. She is a dedicated employee who pays into the company’s self-funded employee health plan, but Turbocam maintains a blanket exclusion on coverage for transgender health care that it claims is rooted in its owner/president’s religious beliefs.

Like most working people, Lillian, who is raising two children, relies on her paycheck and employer-sponsored health care to support herself and her family. Because Turbocam refuses to cover care related to her gender dysphoria, Lillian was forced to pay out-of-pocket for some care and has delayed other critical care due to the expense. There is no medical basis for excluding this care from coverage. Lillian sought transgender health care at her doctor’s recommendation.

“I’m proud of my work at Turbocam,” Lillian said. “I’m just asking for fair coverage and to be treated the same as my coworkers.”

In June 2024, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire denied Turbocam’s motion to dismiss the case, clearing the way for Lillian’s day in court. Both GLAD Law and Turbocam have just concluded months of extensive legal briefing and presentation of evidence. The case is likely to be decided in the coming year.

The litigation initially drew little public attention, but right-wing activists and the Trump administration have seized on it to further their mutual project of delegitimizing transgender people’s existence and stripping away their rights and protections.

Turbocam is represented by attorneys with close ties to the Trump administration and the Federalist Society, and by First Liberty Institute, which is an advisory board member of Project 2025 and has represented defendants in high-profile anti-gay discrimination cases. Their legal filings aggressively deny the existence of transgender people and their need to receive treatment for gender dysphoria.

In August, the US Department of Justice filed a statement of interest supporting Turbocam, which they publicized with a press release that refused to recognize Lillian’s identity and her lived existence, continuing the administration’s pattern of using dehumanizing anti-transgender rhetoric. The filing came amidst the onslaught of policy directives and executive orders by the Trump administration to roll back federal rights and protections for transgender people, and a pressure campaign leveraging federal funding to force state governments, universities, athletic organizations, and health care facilities to do the same.

GLAD Law is ready for this fight because Turbocam is wrongfully using religion to sidestep employment discrimination laws in its mistreatment of Lillian. The Supreme Court has repeatedly rebuffed such claims, including in cases where religious entities or individuals sought to discriminate based on race, and has affirmed that “religious and philosophical objections” aren’t grounds for businesses to break the law. Our opponents are arguing to change this fundamental legal standard, which could further open the doors to workplace discrimination against LGBTQ+ people and others.

“The reality is that their policy is rooted in their dislike of transgender people,” said Michael Haley, GLAD Law Staff Attorney. “This became clear when Turbocam’s owner and president acknowledged in his deposition that the company owner also has religious objections to same sex spousal benefits and IVF treatment, for example, and yet they cover that–casting light on the real motive.”

Turbocam also wrongly claims the ADA doesn’t include protections for people with gender dysphoria. The ADA exists to prevent discrimination based on stigmatized health conditions, and courts, most notably in the case Williams v Kincaid, have ruled the ADA protects against discrimination based on gender dysphoria. In our case, Doe v. MA Dept. of Correction, a judge ruled our client, a transgender woman seeking to be housed in a women’s carceral facility, was likely to prevail on her ADA claims.

As extremists escalate their efforts to undermine LGBTQ+ equality, Bernier v. Turbocam represents a pivotal opportunity to affirm that transgender people like Lillian deserve the same dignity, respect, and protections as everyone else. Lillian’s case is also about much more than one employee’s denied health care. It’s a critical test of whether LGBTQ+ people will continue to enjoy the full protections of significant federal laws.

GLAD Law Attorneys Chris Erchull, Ben Klein, Michael Haley, and Donovan Bendana are working on this case.

This post was originally published in GLAD Law’s 2025 Winter Briefs newsletter.

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