The Trump administration is fighting for gender equality, and they’re taking it to the courts! Wait, what’s that? Oh, they’re fighting against women?
Yup, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency that administers and enforces civil rights laws against workplace discrimination, has filed a lawsuit accusing Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast of violating the law when it hosted a women-only event at a casino in Connecticut in Sept. 2024.
It’s worth underlining that this is not a lawsuit against Coca-Cola, but a bottling and distribution company owned by Kirin Holdings that handles Coca-Cola products.
Anyway, the suit claims that excluding a protected class of workers (in this case, men) from an employer-sponsored event is illegal. They say that this two-day event unfairly discriminated against men, as it denied them access to a social reception, team-building exercises, recreational activities, and hearing a top Coca-Cola executive speak.
On top of that, the company allowed female employees who wanted to attend to do so without using their vacation days and covered their hotel room charges.
Won’t someone think about those poor men?!
Federal agency sues Coca-Cola over work event that excluded men
— Ⓜ️Ⓜ️ Lauren Ashley Davis – OG Meidas Might 🇺🇲🦅 (@Meidas_LaurenA) February 19, 2026
This is the first lawsuit related to workplace diversity that the federal agency in charge of enforcing anti-discrimination laws at work has filed during President Trump's second term.https://t.co/JDafUwhcUw
The Trumpian philosophy behind the suit is that all this is “reverse discrimination”, i.e. arguing that workplace policies, schemes, and events intended for minority employees are illegally excluding everyone else. For example, the same argument could be used if a company decided to host an event for its Black employees.
And, indeed, the commission is actively investigating Nike and Northwestern Mutual for allegedly discriminating against white workers in this fashion, as well as poring over various diversity policies in law firms.
It’s important to note that while actions like this wear the disguise of fighting for equality, the reality is anything but. This is the Trump administration flexing its muscle as it tries to ensure that white men are prioritized over everyone else, and it’s nauseating that they’ve successfully perverted an organization created to do the exact opposite.
It remains to be seen how far this lawsuit will go, but if it succeeds, expect there to be a chilling effect on events and policies designed for women and minorities across the nation. After all, while these companies may enshrine diversity in their corporate philosophies, it’s quite another thing to spend millions of dollars defending them in court.
Published: Feb 19, 2026 11:01 am