Sharon Fast Gustafson, was fired as general counsel for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last year. The appointee of former President Donald J. Trump publicly refused to resign when requested by President Joe Biden in a defiant letter that garnered national attention to what would otherwise be a fairly obscure federal role.
What makes this story even more significant and worthy of re-examination is what Gustafson championed during her tenure as General Counsel: the protection of employees from religious discrimination.
Biden White House has purported to terminate EEOC general counsel Sharon Gustafson's employment as of 5 p.m. today. EEOC is an independent agency. Gustafson was confirmed by Senate to four-year term ending on August 5, 2023. Gustafson is refusing to resign.
— Ed Whelan (@EdWhelanEPPC) March 5, 2021
In her letter to Biden stating her refusal to resign, dated March 2021 and published by Bloomberg Law, Gustafson pointed out a disturbing series of actions from the Biden regime.
She wrote, “…During my term, I established a Religious Discrimination Work Group that hosted a series of Listening Sessions in which a diverse group of representatives — including Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, and Sikhs —recommended ways the EEOC could improve its response to employees who experience religious discrimination. The Work Group built on a 2016 initiative of the Obama-Biden White House and Department of Justice to promote religious freedom and combat religious discrimination. I am transmitting with this letter my Work Group’s ‘Religious Discrimination in Employment: General Counsel Listening Sessions Final Report.’ This report and a related press release were published on the EEOC’s website on January 13, 2021. On February 4, 2021 — shortly after your inauguration — the report and press release were removed from the EEOC’s website.”
Gustafson then added a second disturbing instance of her work being erased. She wrote, “Similarly, in early February 2021, I published an 8-minute podcast on the Religious Discrimination Work Group’s Listening Sessions. That podcast was removed days later. I can only assume that my resignation would be followed by similar suppression of our work promoting religious freedom.”
According to Gustafson’s letter, Biden’s request for her resignation “provided no reason for the request.” Though she asserted that, “there are those who oppose my advocacy on behalf of employees who experience religious discrimination and on behalf of constitutional and statutory protections for religious entities.”
Gustafson’s firing was swept under the rug in 2021 and was lost in a newsfeed flooded with stories of Jan. 6th hearings and political persecution, but behind the scenes, something else was happening. The people and institutions that protect us from persecution for our religious beliefs are being stripped away.
