Federal employees file a complaint against the Trump administration’s ban on gender confirmation care

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is facing a new legal complaint from a group of government employees affected by a new policy taking effect Thursday that eliminates coverage of gender-affirming care in federal health insurance programs.

The complaint, filed Thursday on behalf of employees by the Human Rights Campaign, is in response to an August announcement by the Office of Personnel Management that it would no longer cover “chemical and surgical modification of an individual’s sex characteristics through medical interventions” in health insurance programs for federal employees and U.S. Postal Service workers.

The complaint says denying gender-affirming care coverage is discrimination on the basis of sex and asks the Office of Personnel Affairs to rescind the policy.

“This policy is not about cost or care, but rather about removing transgender people and people with transgender spouses, children, and dependents from the federal workforce,” Kelly Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, said in a statement announcing the move.

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The complaint, filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, includes testimony from four current federal employees at the State Department, Health and Human Services and the Postal Service who would be directly affected by the elimination of coverage.

For example, a Postal Service employee has a daughter whose doctors recommended she get puberty blockers and possibly hormone replacement therapy for her diagnosed gender dysphoria, which would not be covered under the new OPM policy, according to the complaint.

The complaint notes that the workers are filing the claim on behalf of themselves and “a class of similarly situated federal employees.”

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The Trump administration has taken other steps to restrict care for transgender Americans, especially minors. In December, the US Department of Health and Human Services issued proposals that would block gender-affirming care for minors, including a policy that would block Medicare and Medicaid funds from hospitals that provide such care to children.

Senior Trump officials, such as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., describe gender-affirming care as “malpractice” for minors. But such restrictions run counter to the recommendations of major medical groups such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.