RFK Jr. Moves to restrict gender-affirming care for minors
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the Trump administration has moved to restrict gender-affirming care for minors.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has determined that health insurance companies can restrict federal workers’ compensation coverage of gender-affirming treatments.
The Republican-led committee said the Trump administration’s policy of allowing insurance companies to limit treatment was not discriminatory.
Four current and former transgender federal employees have alleged that policies administered by the Office of Personnel Management violate federal civil rights law and unlawfully discriminate on the basis of gender.
“After careful consideration, no violations were found,” the EEOC said in its decision.
In doing so, the EEOC reversed its previous decision that denying gender-affirming care was evidence of sex discrimination.
Republicans hold a 2-1 majority on the committee. Commissioner Kalpana Kotagal, the lone Democrat, said she voted against the decision because it “ignores the law, ignores medical consensus, and treats transgender people as second-class citizens.”
“Title VII requires employer-provided health insurance to not discriminate on the basis of gender,” she wrote on LinkedIn. “Transgender people are part of our workplace, and like everyone else, they have the right to be free from discrimination in the workplace.”
OPM enacted a new policy in January that prohibits insurance companies from covering gender-affirming care.
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, an LGBTQ+ rights organization, filed a complaint with the EEOC, challenging the policy and saying it discriminates against workers on the basis of gender and denies necessary medical care to transgender people.
In February, the EEOC issued a decision authorizing federal agencies to prohibit workers from using the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity, the latest in a series of moves by the Trump administration to boost transgender rights in the workplace.
