Citing a recent executive order from President Donald Trump, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a joint motion Thursday to dismiss a discrimination lawsuit against Home2 Suites by Hilton Hotel in Dothan.

“On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order titled ‘Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,‘“ the motion reads.

“On January 29, 2025, the Office of Personnel Management issued ‘Initial Guidance Regarding President Trump’s Executive Order Defending Women’ directing that all federal employees must comply with and take actions to effectuate the Order.”

“The EEOC’s continued litigation of the claims in this action may be inconsistent with the Order,” it continues.

The EEOC filed its lawsuit in June against Hilton owner Harmony Hospitality, who has joined the motion to dismiss.

The complaint alleged that the Dothan hotel’s owner Hitesh Patel terminated an employee because of their “failure to adhere to male gender stereotypes.”

The former employee, who identifies as a gay nonbinary male in the complaint, said that they were fired after showing up to a meeting scheduled outside of working hours wearing capri cut joggers, pink painted nails, and box braids.

Following this meeting, the complaint alleges that Patel instructed the assistant general manager to have the employee change their hairstyle.

The assistant general manager refused to do so, telling Patel that this could be discriminatory due to the employee’s gender identity, the complaint says.

After discovering that the employee identifies as nonbinary, Patel told the assistant general manager that they needed to be “hidden” working nights due to their appearance, according to the complaint.

Just before 8 p.m. that day, seven hours after the hotel’s co-owner Nisha Patel was informed of the scheduling changes and the employee’s gender identity, the employee received a text from Nisha informing them that they were terminated.

According to EEOC Regional Attorney Marsha Rucker, this termination was unlawful sex-based discrimination.

“The effect of the practices complained of above has been to deprive [employee] of equal employment opportunities and otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee because of his sex,” the complaint reads.

“The unlawful employment practices complained of above were done with malice or with reckless indifference to the federally protected rights of the [employee].”

But under Trump’s executive order, this federal protection no longer applies to individuals who do not identify with their biological sex.

“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” the order reads.

“These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality. Under my direction, the Executive Branch will enforce all sex-protective laws to promote this reality.”

The order continued that “‘gender identity’ reflects a fully internal and subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality and sex and existing on an infinite continuum, that does not provide a meaningful basis for identification and cannot be recognized as a replacement for sex.”

Self-identified progressive group Unmute Alabama wrote in a post to X on Monday that the EEOC’s decision to drop the suit is “saying that under Trump’s executive order, it [discrimination] no longer matters.”

Rucker declined a request for comment and efforts to reach lawyers for Christian & Small, LLP., who represent Harmony Hospitality, were unsuccessful.