Federal Workers Challenge Trump Administration Over Loss Of Gender-Affirming Care Coverage
Brought by the Human Rights Campaign, the complaint alleges discrimination after federal health plans dropped coverage for gender-affirming care.
Federal employees are pushing back against a sweeping new policy from the Trump administration that strips gender-affirming care from federal health insurance coverage, arguing that the move is discriminatory and intended to force transgender people and their families out of public service.
On Thursday, the Human Rights Campaign filed a class complaint on behalf of four federal workers with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The complaint challenges a decision by the Office of Personnel Management to eliminate coverage for gender-affirming care across federal employee and U.S. Postal Service health plans.
The policy, which took effect at the start of the new year, stems from an August letter sent by OPM to workers enrolled in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and the Postal Service Health Benefits Program. In that letter, the agency announced that it would no longer cover “chemical and surgical modification of an individual’s sex traits through medical interventions,” language the administration uses to describe gender transition-related care. The change applies regardless of age, though OPM said exceptions could be made on a case-by-case basis for people already in the middle of treatment. Counseling for gender dysphoria will remain covered, including faith-based counseling.
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The employees named in the complaint work at the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Postal Service. Either they or their immediate family members rely on care that is now excluded. One Postal Service worker, for example, has a daughter whose doctors have recommended puberty blockers and possibly hormone replacement therapy for diagnosed gender dysphoria. Under the new rules, that care would no longer be covered.
The complaint argues that the policy amounts to sex-based discrimination and asks that it be rescinded. It also seeks retroactive payment for care already denied, mandatory retraining for health plan administrators, and a permanent injunction to prevent similar changes in the future.
In a statement announcing the complaint, Human Rights Campaign Foundation President Kelley Robinson said, “This policy is not about cost or care — it is about driving transgender people and people with transgender spouses, children, and dependents out of the federal workforce.”
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The complaint lands amid a broader effort by President Trump’s administration to roll back protections for transgender people. In recent months, the administration has advanced proposals that would severely limit access to gender-affirming care for minors. The Department of Health and Human Services has floated rules that would bar Medicare and Medicaid funds from hospitals providing such care to children and block the Children’s Health Insurance Program from covering it.
Senior officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have labeled gender-affirming care for minors as malpractice. Those claims run counter to guidance from major medical organizations like the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, both of which support access to evidence-based gender-affirming care.
