Policy violates constitutional protections and multiple federal anti-discrimination laws\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lambda Legal today condemned the U.S. Office of Personnel Management\u2019s announcement that it will exclude coverage for gender-affirming care for adults from the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) and Postal Service Health Benefits (PSHB) programs beginning in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis discriminatory policy denying medical care to government employees and their dependents is not only cruel\u2014it is illegal,\u201d said Lambda Legal Counsel and Health Care Strategist Omar Gonzalez-Pagan. \u201cThe federal government cannot simply strip away essential healthcare coverage from transgender employees while providing comprehensive medical care to all other federal workers. Beyond the fundamental equal protection guarantees enshrined in our Constitution, which prohibit such animus-laden actions, multiple federal laws also prohibit this type of discrimination. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination, including denying equal benefits to LGBTQ+ employees, as confirmed by the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act bars discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded health programs. The federal government cannot simply ignore and violate these laws.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will not stand by while the federal government tramples on the civil rights of hardworking transgender public servants,\u201d concluded Gonzalez-Pagan. \u00a0\u201cLambda Legal is exploring all options to respond to this discriminatory policy and protect the rights of transgender Americans, including those serving our country.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you are, or know of, a transgender federal employee or federal employee with a transgender dependent who will be negatively impacted by this policy change, Lambda Legal wants to hear from you.\u00a0 Please contact our Help Desk at\u00a0 https:\/\/lambdalegal.org\/helpdesk\/.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Policy violates constitutional protections and multiple federal anti-discrimination laws\u00a0 Lambda Legal today condemned the U.S. Office of Personnel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-99834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}