Transgender Surgery Exclusion in Georgia Health Plan Upheld (1)

A Georgia county health plan can lawfully exclude coverage for a transgender employee’s gender-affirming surgery, a federal appeals court said Tuesday.

The exclusion didn’t violate the employee’s right against discrimination in the workplace as set out in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a split panel of all the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit’s active judges said.

The ruling vacated a lower court judgment for Houston County, Ga., deputy sheriff Anna Lange in her suit against her employer after she was denied coverage for a medically necessary vaginoplasty. A divided three-judge panel previously affirmed ...