Atlanta ( AP ) A Georgia county requested on Tuesday that a federal appeals court overturn its decision that, by failing to cover the cost of the deputy sheriff’s gender-affirmation surgery, it had unlawfully discriminated against her.
However, attorneys for Houston County Sgt. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ‘ three-judge board was urged by Anna Lange to dismiss the appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that it is unlawful sex discrimination to deny Lange insurance cover for the treatment, they claimed during a reading in Atlanta.
After being denied insurance, Lange, an analyst for the Houston County sheriff’s office, filed a lawsuit against Sheriff Cullen Talton and the state in 2019.
According to a 2022 decision by U.S. District Court Judge Marc Treadwell, the state’s refusal to pay for the gender-affirmation procedure that Lange was prescribed constituted unlawful sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling that a Michigan funeral home could n’t fire an employee for being transgender was cited in Treadwells ‘ order.
Lange later underwent the procedure after the judge mandated that the county’s insurance plan pay for it. In 2022, a judge awarded Lange problems of$ 60,000,000.
In an effort to present its case to a judge, the state wants to invalidate Treadwell’s buy and the damage award.
After the reading, Lange said,” The law is on our side, obviously,” expressing trust that the purchase and the destruction prize would be upheld.
Houston County contends that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, which forbids firing transgender persons, does not apply to health insurance.
The state also contends that because the program pays for some other remedies, its exclusion of gender-affirmation surgery is not biased. According to a county attorney, the state’s refusal to pay for Lange procedure is comparable to its decision to forego hearing aids or lap band surgery in order to lose weight. The state claimed that in an effort to reduce the cost of surgery, it covered some of Lange’s care, including hormone therapy and visits from endocrinologists.
We only have one strategy, Sgt. Attorney Patrick Lail informed the magistrates on Tuesday that Lange got, just like every other state staff and sheriff’s staff.
However, attorneys for Lange and the US Department of Justice advised magistrates that Houston County’s claims should be disregarded, citing six another court decisions that supported Treadwell. On Lange’s behest, the federal government stepped in, stating that it had to defend the rights of transgender individuals and uphold Title VII of the 1964 civil rights act.
” This is a simple case,” Lange’s attorney David Brown argued. An company who provides unbalanced benefits due to sexual is prohibited by Title VII, according to the Supreme Court.
The court may ignore arguments about additional benefits given to the commander or uncovered procedures, according to Lange’s attorneys. Instead, they claimed, the judges should concentrate on whether this specific prohibition on gender-affirming operation was unfair.
According to Justice Department lawyer Anna Baldwin, it” creates an obligation never to treat people separately because of sex.” You cannot be excluded from the discussion that lap band surgery is not covered because you are trans.
According to court records, Lange expressed her desire to start dressing as a person at work to the judge and other officials in 2018 and inquired as to whether Houston County’s health plan may cover gender-affirmation surgery.
According to the documents, Talton, who was first elected sheriff in 1972, told Lange he did n’t “believe in sex changes” before allowing her to dress as a woman.
Gender-affirmation operation and medications had been prohibited by the state health strategy since 1998, and court records revealed that Houston County officials continued to do so even after the company that administers the program claimed in 2016 that the law was unfair under the federal Affordable Care Act.
