A federal judge has found that a Georgia sheriff’s office was illegally discriminating when it denied gender reassignment surgery to a deputy. The judge says Houston County cannot exclude surgery for the transgender woman from its health insurance plan.
Treadwell wrote in his order that Lange, a 16-year-employee, told the sheriff and other county officials in 2018 that she wanted to begin dressing as a woman at work, while inquiring about whether Houston County’s health plan would cover gender reassignment surgery.
But the county health plan had excluded sex change surgery and drugs since 1998. Lange was denied authorization for surgery in November 2018 after county personnel director Kenneth Carter told the insurer the county wanted to keep the exclusion, even though the insurer had advised Houston County in 2016 that the rule was discriminatory under the federal Affordable Care Act.
Treadwell found it’s undisputed that Lange’s surgery “medically necessary” and questioned whether the concern about costs was just a smokescreen to discriminate against Lange. But the judge said the Supreme Court made clear in a 2020 case that treating someone differently because they are transgender violates a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex. For example, the judge noted the county health plan would pay for a mastectomy for cancer treatment, but not to treat gender dysphoria.“Discrimination on the basis of transgender status is discrimination on the basis of sex and is a violation of Title VII,” the judge wrote.
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