03-20-2025
Karen Ortiz is an administrative law judge within the EEOC. She received a directive from her supervisor to pause all LGBTQ cases and send them back to Washington, D.C. for review in light of the executive order that the government would only recognize two genders. Ortiz responded with an email to 185 colleagues, asking them to “resist” complying with the “illegal mandates.” Her email was “mysteriously” deleted. The next day, Ortiz went bigger, emailing Acting Chair Andrea Lucas with a cc to 1000 colleagues with the subject line “A Spoon is Better Than a Fork” (a reference to Musk’s Fork in the Road subject line). In Ortiz’s email, she questioned Lucas’s fitness for the job and “to practice law.” Ortiz asserted that she would not compromise her ethics or duty to uphold the law. She said, “I will not cower to bullying and intimidation.” That message disappeared within an hour, and Ortiz lost the ability to send any other emails.
However, the email made it to the internet and was recirculated on Bluesky. It received more than 10,000 “upvotes” on Reddit. Ortiz does not regret her choice to send the email. She said she received “a ton” of private support since sending her email. Her EEOC colleagues have not openly supported her. Fear of retaliation is a “very real thing,” according to a staffer about to retire. Ortiz knows she may lose her job but said, “[t]hey will have to physically march me out of the office.”
The EEOC has issued her a written reprimand for “discourteous conduct.” The agency said it has a “long-standing policy prohibiting unauthorized all-employee emails, and all employees were reminded of that policy recently.”