A coalition of federal workers has launched a fresh legal challenge against the Trump administration. They argued that a new health insurance policy set to take effect Thursday unlawfully strips coverage for gender-affirming care.
The complaint, submitted to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by the Human Rights Campaign on behalf of affected employees, targets a policy announced in August by the Office of Personnel Management. Under the change, federal employee and U.S. Postal Service health plans would no longer cover what the agency described as “chemical and surgical modification of an individual’s sex traits through medical interventions.”
In the filing, the workers contend that removing coverage for gender-affirming care amounts to sex-based discrimination and are asking OPM to withdraw the policy entirely.
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“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,” Human Rights Campaign Foundation President Kelley Robinson said in a statement announcing the complaint.
According to the filing, four current federal employees from the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Postal Service provided testimony describing how the policy would directly affect them and their families. The workers say they are bringing the complaint not only for themselves, but also on behalf of a broader group of federal employees in similar circumstances.
One example cited involves a Postal Service employee whose daughter has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Her doctors recommended puberty blockers and possibly hormone replacement therapy, care that would no longer be covered if the OPM policy takes effect, the complaint states.
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The legal action comes amid a wider push by the Trump administration to limit access to gender-affirming care, particularly for minors. In December, the Department of Health and Human Services unveiled proposals that would restrict such care for children, including a plan to withhold Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals that provide it.
Administration officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have labeled gender-affirming care for minors as “malpractice.” Major medical organizations, however, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have issued guidance supporting access to this care, AP reported.
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