Arizona Trans Professor Denied Early Relief on Surgery Exclusion

An Arizona state employee health plan’s blanket refusal to pay for gender reassignment surgery will stay in effect pending a lawsuit over its legality because the preliminary relief sought goes beyond maintaining the parties’ positions during the litigation, a federal court said.

Russell Toomey, a transgender Arizona university professor, lost his request for an order barring the state from enforcing the categorical exclusion, requiring the state to evaluate whether surgery is medically necessary on an employee-by-employee basis, and requiring the state to notify transgender people covered by the plan of their rights.

A federal magistrate judge recommended denying Toomey’s preliminary ...