After state ruling against Walmart, transgender man sues over harassment at West St. Paul store

When Jackson Villarreal worked at the West St. Paul Walmart, his nametag said “Jack.” But his supervisors repeatedly called the transgender teen by his birth name.

Villarreal asked them to stop, but the harassment instead escalated to unwanted questions about his gender, regulatory documents say. Ultimately, a supervisor offered another Walmart worker $100 to pull down Villarreal’s pants to determine whether he was a boy or a girl, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights found.

The department’s investigation concluded Walmart had subjected Villarreal to “severe and pervasive harassment” based on his gender identity — a rare finding.

Villarreal sued Walmart for sex discrimination last fall, and the case is pending in Dakota County District Court. Walmart has denied Villarreal’s allegations, and told the Minnesota Star Tribune in an email that it does “not tolerate discrimination of any kind.”

Villarreal, through his attorney, declined to comment. His case offers a window into what a recent UCLA study called “persistent and widespread” discrimination against transgender employees in the workplace.

It also comes at a time when federal pursuit of workplace gender identity discrimination claims could be curtailed.

One of President Donald Trump’s first executive orders last month — under the rubric of “restoring biological truth to the federal government” — was to remove federal policies and regulations promoting “gender ideology.”

Trump also fired two commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and axed the independent agency’s general counsel.

The EEOC’s acting chair, a Trump appointee, has said the agency “betrayed its mission” by issuing guidance on gender identity harassment in the workplace.

“We are concerned the EEOC will stop bringing gender discrimination cases,” said Anne Bolgert, a Minneapolis employment lawyer at Schaefer Halleen who is representing Villarreal in his suit against Walmart.

Any federal retrenchment should not affect gender discrimination cases brought under Minnesota law, Twin Cities lawyers say.

“Minnesota’s gender discrimination law is very strong,” Bolgert said.

Jackson Villarreal was 16 in September 2020 when he started working as an associate at a Walmart near his West St. Paul home. He had not yet legally changed his name or gender, so on his job application, Villarreal used his birth sex and birth name.

About a month into his job, several Walmart “team leads” — the store supervisors — began calling Villarreal by his birth name, which advocates of transgender people call a “deadname,” according to the Human Rights Department’s investigation.

When he asked them to stop, they questioned why the name he went by — Jack — was different than the name in Walmart’s computer systems. Villarreal told them it was because he was transgender, leaving him feeling he had been “pushed into being outed,” the state report said.

Villarreal tried to brush off the comments, but they worsened. Co-workers asked him personal questions about his gender and kept using his birth name “in ways that were ruder and more intentional,” the report said.

One team leader commented to another co-worker about the size of Villarreal’s chest, suggesting that someone should “snap [his] bra.” That same team leader offered another worker $100 to pull down Villarreal’s pants.

A co-worker told Villarreal about the team leader’s pants bounty. On Jan. 12, 2021, Villarreal’s mother reported it to West St. Paul police, noting that Walmart had done nothing to resolve the harassment.

Police investigated, calling the store’s “general manager coach.” He told police it was the first he’d heard of any such harassment, a police report said. Another manager told police Walmart took the matter “very seriously.”

Police did not refer the Villarreal complaint for prosecution.

Later in January, Villarreal’s mother contacted Walmart’s global ethics hotline to report ongoing discrimination against her son. Walmart did not contact either Villarreal or his mother, the state report said.

Walmart’s investigation into the pants threat did not begin “in earnest” until March 6, according to the Human Rights Department. In April, Walmart fired the team leader who made the comment, citing gross misconduct.

But the West St. Paul store’s team leaders never took other actions to stop harassment against Villarreal, or report it up Walmart’s management chain, the state report said.

The Human Rights Department in December 2023 found “probable cause” that Walmart discriminated against Villarreal, subjecting him to a “hostile work environment because of his gender identity.”

The state also found probable cause that Walmart had constructively discharged Villarreal. In employment law, constructive discharge occurs when an employee resigns due to intolerable working conditions, including discrimination.

Villarreal never went back to work after learning of the threat to pull down his pants.

Walmart unsuccessfully appealed the probable cause findings to the Human Rights Department. The department, as it commonly does, attempted to settle the case. That effort failed — which is uncommon.

“If [the state Human Rights Department] finds probable cause, almost all of those cases get settled,” said Marshall Tanick, a Minneapolis employment attorney. “And they don’t find probable cause too often.”

The department issued conclusions in 745 employment discrimination investigations of all kinds between Jan. 1, 2020, and Dec. 1, 2024. Only 9% resulted in probable cause findings against an employer.

Since mid-2023, the Human Rights Department has fielded 17 charges of workplace gender identity discrimination. Before the Villarreal case, only one of those complaints closed with a finding. Investigators concluded there was no probable cause, a favorable decision for the employer.

About 0.5% of adults in Minnesota — and the United States generally — identify as transgender, according to a 2022 study by the Williams Institute, an arm of UCLA’s law school.

Transgender people face pervasive discrimination in the workplace, the Williams Institute concluded in a November report.

Eighty-two percent of transgender employees said they experienced workplace harassment at some point during their careers, the study found. That compared with 45% for cisgender lesbian, gay and bisexual employees.

Boston Consulting Group, a management consultancy, found in a 2023 study that 62% of U.S. transgender employees reported 10 or more “aggressive behaviors” over a year’s time due to their identity. That included inappropriate questions and exclusionary behavior by co-workers.

Minnesota has had laws prohibiting discrimination for sexual orientation and gender identity for decades. It is one of 23 states that bar discrimination on both grounds, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

Nine other states accept gender identity discrimination complaints because they have adopted the “Bostock rationale” into state law, according to the rights group.

Bostock refers to a landmark 2020 Supreme Court decision that prohibits gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“For a long time, there was debate over whether [the Civil Rights Act] would protect transgender and gay people,” said Joshua Newville, a Minneapolis employment attorney with Halunen Law. “Bostock brought a lot of clarity. It is the law of the land.”

But given the Trump administration’s anti-transgender stance, Newville said he’s “greatly concerned that the EEOC is not going to enforce the law.”

“For LGBT persons in states lacking protection against employment discrimination, it’s a scary time,” he said.