HEALTH
Trump Sued for Gutting Trans Health Protections
Lambda Legal takes lead in wave of litigation after HHS nixed Obamacare provision
BY MATT TRACY
Lambda Legal and a coalition
of LGBTQ organizations
sued the Trump
administration’s Department
of Health and Human
Services (HHS) on June 22 in response
to the agency’s rule aimed
at stripping transgender health
protections from the Affordable
Care Act.
The lawsuit comes just over a
week after the administration fi -
nalized the rule, which undercuts
a 2016 provision of Obamacare that
included gender identity in the defi -
nition of sex discrimination. Under
Section 1557 of the Affordable Care
Act, hospitals were directed to offer
equal access of health services to
trans people and women who have
had abortions, while health insurers
were required to cover the services.
Lambda Legal and Steptoe &
Johnson LLP fi led the lawsuit,
dubbed Whitman-Walker Clinic v.
HHS, on behalf of Whitman-Walker
Health, a non-profi t community
health center in Washington, DC,
specializing in HIV/ AIDS and
LGBTQ-related care; the TransLatin@
Coalition and its members;
Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community
Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania;
the Los Angeles LGBT
Center; GLMA: Health Professionals
Advancing LGBTQ Equality;
AGLP: The Association of LGBTQ
Psychiatrists; and four doctors.
“While HHS’s health care discrimination
rule cannot change
the law, it creates chaos and confusion
where there was once clarity
about the right of everyone in
our communities, and specifi cally
transgender people, to receive
health care free of discrimination,”
Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, senior attorney
and health care strategist
for Lambda Legal, said in a written
statement. “Today, Lambda
Legal, a broad coalition of LGBTQ
groups, and the people our clients
serve say ‘enough’ to the incessant
attacks from the very agency
charged with protecting their
President Donald Trump and Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar are facing new lawsuits
after they fi nalized a rule slashing transgender health protections.
LAMBDA LEGAL
Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, a senior attorney at
Lambda Legal helming the lawsuit against the
new discriminatory HHS rule.
health and well-being. For years,
the Trump administration has utilized
HHS as a weapon to target
and hurt vulnerable communities
who already experience alarming
rates of discrimination when seeking
care, even now, during a global
pandemic. Their actions are wrong,
callous, immoral, and legally indefensible.
REUTERS/ TOM BRENNER
NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL/ WILLIAM ALATRISTE
On June 15, New York State Attorney General
Letitia James also vowed to take on the new
HHS policy.
We will fi ght back.”
Other groups, such as the Human
Rights Campaign, had said after
the administration announced
the rule that they would also be
fi ling lawsuits. New York State Attorney
General Letitia James said
on June 15 that she would “legally
challenge this rule.”
The rule was fi rst proposed by
the administration in May of last
year and is slated to go into effect
on August 18, but legal groups
such as Lambda Legal and experts
like Chase Strangio of the LGBT &
HIV Project of the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) have argued
that the rule is not legal.
“An agency can only do what is
authorized by the law it is implementing,”
Strangio wrote in a tweet
on June 12. “So if the law says ‘no
discrimination on the basis of sex’
an agency can’t decide to disregard
that. The statue, not the regulatory
defi nition, is the source of the protection.”
Three days after the administration
announced the fi nalization
of this rule, the Supreme Court
ruled in a 6-3 decision that LGBTQ
people have employment nondiscrimination
protections under
Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights
Act. While that ruling is expected
to have a broader impact beyond
employment, it is not clear whether
it could have an impact on this
case.
Bamby Salcedo, president and
CEO of the TransLatin@ Coalition,
said in a written statement that
the TransLatin@ Coalition and its
affi liates exist because there are
already challenges for those in the
community who are seeking competent,
compassionate healthcare.
The administration’s new rule,
however, jeopardizes all of that.
“Our lives depend on it and we’re
going to fi ght for it,” Salcedo said.
Adrian Shanker, the executive
director of the Bradbury-Sullivan
LGBT Community Center, expressed
similar justifi cation for
joining the lawsuit.
“Healthcare non-discrimination
protections are essential to ensure
that LGBTQ people can receive the
healthcare we need to survive,”
Shanker said in a written statement.
“That’s why Bradbury-Sullivan
LGBT Community Center is
standing up to the Trump administration
on behalf of our community.
Healthcare is a human right
and LGBTQ people deserve nondiscriminatory
healthcare.”
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