A transgender state employee in Alaska is suing the state for denying her health care benefits, thereby forcing her to pay out-of-pocket expenses for medically necessary surgery.
Alaska’s current health insurance plan for state employees prohibits coverage for the same surgical procedures used in transition-related surgery that would otherwise be covered had the patient been cisgender instead of transgender.
Jennifer Fletcher, a 36-year old Juneau resident who works as a state legislative librarian, was diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2014. Consulting with her doctors, Fletcher started hormone therapy and was advised to pursue gender confirmation surgery as well.
Because AlaskaCare has contained a blanket exclusion on transition-related surgery since 1979, Fletcher was denied coverage for the surgery and had to pay out of pocket. Beginning in 2018, AlaskaCare began covering hormone therapy for transgender employees, recognizing it as medically necessary, but continues to deny requests for surgical-related expenses.
Fletcher subsequently enlisted the help of Lambda Legal and sued the state.
“Jennifer Fletcher was denied coverage for medically necessary treatment specifically because she is transgender,” Lambda Legal Senior Attorney Peter Renn said in a statement. “This is unlawful and stigmatizing discrimination that jeopardizes the health of hardworking state employees. The state employee health care program — AlaskaCare — covers medically necessary treatment for all state employees except transgender employees. That’s textbook discrimination by any standard.”
In its lawsuit, Lambda Legal argues that the State of Alaska is violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits sex discrimination. In March 2018, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that there was reasonable cause to believe the State of Alaska violated Title VII when it refused to cover Fletcher’s medical expenses.
“All that I am asking is that the State of Alaska stop discriminating against people like myself,” Fletcher said in a statement. “My coworkers are able to receive coverage for their care, but coverage for transition-related care is denied. This sends a clear message that the State does not value me, and does not consider me equal to its other employees, by forcing me to pay out of pocket for my medically necessary care. How is this not discriminatory, when equivalent care is routinely provided to other state employees?”
Most mainstream medical associations, including the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association, recognize that transition-related surgical treatments are often considered medically necessary for transgender people who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. As such, they have called for an end to discriminatory exclusions like those in AlaskaCare.
“Whether your insurance will cover medically necessary treatment should not depend on who you are,” Lambda Legal Counsel Tara Borelli said in a statement. “The State itself recognizes that transition-related care is medically necessary, which is why it covers hormone therapy. The only reason for this lingering blanket exclusion against surgical treatment is irrational discrimination.”
Billionaire X CEO Elon Musk said that gay people should have children to ensure the "continuance of civilization."
Musk recently posted a set of political positions he holds, which he claimed were "centrist." They read like a laundry list of conservative views, including opposition to unfettered immigration, large amounts of government spending, and opposition to allowing minors to access gender-affirming medical treatments.
"My positions are centrist," Musk wrote. "Secure borders. Safe & clean cities. Don't bankrupt America with spending. Racism against any race is wrong. No sterilization below age of consent."
A city council member for a U.S.-Mexico border town was overwhelmingly voted out of office in a recall election after she came out as transgender.
Calexico Council Member and former Mayor Raúl Ureña -- who uses all pronouns but prefers "she" -- was first elected to the city council in 2020, at age 23.
She was hailed in recent years as a progressive hero challenging the political status quo in the town of about 38,000, located in California, just across the border from Mexicali, Mexico.
In 2020, Ureña had succeeded former Council Member David Romero, who went to federal prison after being convicted in a bribery scandal.
On April 19, the Biden administration issued new rules outlining schools' obligations under Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination -- including explicit protections for LGBTQ students.
The new rules, which take effect August 1, expand Title IX's protections against sex-based discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding by prohibiting discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity in federally-funded educational programs.
That explicit expansion of the law seeks to align Title IX guidance with the principles undergirding a landmark 2020 Supreme Court decision finding that the Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ workers from workplace discrimination, and that instances of anti-LGBTQ discrimination are inherently a form of sex-based discrimination.
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