Official photo of Commissioner Emily Johnson Piper (Photo: Minnesota Department of Human Services).
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Minnesota filed a lawsuit on Thursday in Minnesota State Court challenging the current ban on using covering transition-related surgery expenses for transgender people.
The ACLU, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of Evan Thomas and the LGBT rights group OutFront Minnesota, is suing Emily Johnson Piper in her role as the Commissioner of Minnesota’s Department of Human Services, and demanding that the state repeal the coverage exclusions in both Medical Assistance, the state’s Medicaid program, and MinnesotaCare, the state’s program for lower-income residents without access to employee-sponsored health insurance. The ACLU argues that not only is the current exclusions are both discriminatory against transgender people, and have no basis in medical science.
“For many transgender people, transition-related surgery is a medical necessity and can sometimes be a matter of life and death,” Joshua Block, an attorney with the ACLU’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Project. “Transgender Minnesotans — like everyone else — should be able to receive adequate health care based on medical standards of care.”
Under current Minnesota law, all transition-related surgical care is denied coverage, regardless of whether it is medically necessary for treating a person’s gender dysphoria. However, the same treatments are required to be covered under the federal Medicare program and under all private health insurance plans regulated by the state of Minnesota.
“Every major medical organization has recognized that policies banning coverage for medically necessary transition care have no basis in modern medical science,” Block continued. “Minnesota’s statute is a historical relic based purely on disapproval of transgender people.”
In addition to Medicare, 10 other states and the District of Columbia currently provide coverage for transition-related surgical care through their public health insurance or Medicaid programs.
Thomas, the lead plaintiff in the case, is currently on Medical Assistance and has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. After fighting depression, Thomas was able to begin hormone therapy and legally changed his name and gender earlier this year. But he is still being denied coverage for medically necessary transition-related surgery.
“A weight was lifted when I first began my gender transition and realized I didn’t have to pretend to be a woman anymore,” Thomas said in a statement. “Being denied surgical treatment is harmful to my health and well-being every day I’m forced to live in this body.”
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is requiring agency employees to dress "in a manner consistent with their biological gender," in a swipe against the transgender and gender-nonconforming community.
Miller issued the requirement on April 13 as part of a "dress code and grooming policy," issued as a memo to department employees.
According to The Texas Observer, which first reported on the new dress code, employees are expected to dress in a way that their clothing and standards of grooming conform to their assigned sex at birth, as determined by their biological anatomy.
A man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for shooting a transgender woman in the face during a robbery.
Christian Lucas was originally charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon, but pleaded down to aggravated assault threat with a deadly weapon.
In exchange for his guilty plea, he was sentenced to 12 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
According to charging documents, Houston police responded to reports of a shooting on November 13, 2022.
Upon arriving on the scene, they found a woman who had been shot in the face. The woman told officers she had met a man -- later identified as Lucas -- on a dating app called "Tagged" the day before.
Florida lawmakers have approved a bill expanding prohibitions on LGBTQ content in the state's existing "Parental Rights in Education" law -- dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" law by opponents -- through high school.
The new law also contains what opponents call a "book ban" provision, which permits any county resident -- regardless of whether they have children enrolled in school -- to demand the removal of books they deem objectionable from school library shelves.
The expanded law passed on a party-line vote in both chambers, which are controlled by Republicans, and now heads to the desk of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis for his signature into law.
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