Support Grows for Ditching West Virginia’s LGBTQ Care Exclusion

Supporters of transgender rights, including 15 states and the District of Columbia, are urging the Fourth Circuit to uphold a decision requiring West Virginia’s Medicaid program to pay for gender-confirming care.

The program’s refusal to pay for surgeries such as hysterectomies and vaginoplasties for transgender people, while covering the exact same care for cisgender people, is discriminatory and unconstitutional, the states, medical professional groups, and advocates for low-income people said in friend of the court briefs Wednesday.

The case is one of several, including suits pending in Arizona and Georgia, challenging state Medicaid or employee health plans that impose blanket ...