Transgender Deputy’s Win on Surgery Coverage Survives Appeal

A Georgia county’s denial of health plan coverage for a sheriff deputy’s gender-affirming surgery was illegal discrimination under federal law, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled.

A panel of judges split 2-1 on Monday, with the majority finding that refusal to cover the surgery was sex-based bias under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, affirming a lower court decision in the deputy’s favor.

Attorneys for Houston County had argued its policy of not covering “sex change” surgeries was an exclusion of a specific procedure that applied equally to men and women, and so it ...