Trans woman in American Samoa wins $125K in harassment settlement

A trans woman in American Somoa won a $125,000 settlement over claims she was harassed by her boss in the American Samoa Government (ASG).

On Thursday, the Justice Department announced a resolution to the lawsuit it filed in the U.S. District Court for Hawaii on behalf of Simeonica Tuiteleleapaga, who the court determined was discriminated against because she is a transgender woman, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

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While New York State already has similar protections in place, the Council passed the bill in case state law ever changes.

Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion and sex, which the Supreme Court said in 2020 includes sexual orientation and gender identity.

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Under the consent decree approved by the district court Wednesday, the ASG is required to pay $125,000 to compensate Tuiteleleapaga for the harassment she suffered at the hands of her supervisor, Meki Solomona.

The decree also requires the ASG to adopt new policies and procedures to handle sex-based discrimination complaints and to provide its employees with training on the new policies.

According to the complaint, Solomona, then director of the ASG’s Department of Human and Social Services, harassed Tuiteleleapaga and another transgender employee on multiple occasions despite their complaints about his misconduct.

The complaint describes one humiliating instance when Solomona singled out Tuiteleleapaga at a department-wide meeting, where he threatened to eliminate her position, asked her if she was a “girl or a boy” and told her to “take it off” and “let us see if you are a woman.”

After Tuiteleleapaga left the meeting in tears, Solomona continued his anti-trans rant for another 40 minutes, repeatedly referring to Tuiteleleapaga as a “thing” or an “it.”

As described in the complaint, following the meeting Solomona attempted to transfer the woman to another work location, misgendered her to her supervisor, attempted to terminate her, and refused to allow her routine work travel authorizations. The ASG failed to take any actions to intervene.

After the Hawaii District Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) investigated and attempted to resolve Ms. Tuiteleleapaga’s charge of discrimination, the case was referred to the Justice Department as an enforcement action.

“Discrimination against transgender employees is discrimination based on their sex, and no employee should have to tolerate a supervisor’s hostile comments about their gender identity,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Transgender employees must be free from discrimination, harassment or derision in the workplace. The Justice Department will not tolerate discrimination based on an employee’s sex or gender identity and will safeguard the rights of vulnerable workers, including LGBTQI+ employees.”

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