Monthly Archives: October 2014

Trans People Won’t Wait

Obama’s EO protecting LGBT folks from discrimination by Federal contractors still doesn’t have enforcing regulations. More than four years after Obamacare was passed, Obama Administration still hasn’t handled illegal trans-exclusionary insurance. The Obama Administration still illegally discriminates against trans Federal employees in health insurance.

Trans people won’t wait.

There should be a trans-inclusive health insurance nationwide mandate in place *now* under present law. The military should be immediately removing its ban on openly trans service members.

Trans people won’t wait.

Obama talks about this being his “year of action,” but that’s not what we’re seeing in trans issues.

DOJ has only made the most modest of efforts to curtail local police criminalizing walking while trans. DOJ has stood by silently while a 16-year-old girl is abused under color of Connecticut state law.

Trans people won’t wait.

It’s time for DOJ and Obama to take on the criminalization of being trans. It’s time for HHS and Obama to stop letting insurers treat being trans as a preexisting condition. It’s time for DOD and Obama to end the nonsensical ban on transgender service members. It’s time for OPM and Obama to stop directly and overtly discriminating against Federal employees. It’s time for Labor and Obama to actually enforce the EO prohibiting sexual orientation/gender identity discrimination.

Trans people won’t wait.

None of these requires Congressional action. The President’s inaction shows how little he cares about trans rights.

Remember when Obama’s slogan was “we can’t wait?” He left out the asterisk “except for trans folks; you all will be waiting indefinitely.” Remember when Obama said insurance companies couldn’t discriminate on the basis of gender? He left off the asterisk for “except for trans people.”

Trans people won’t wait.

Response to Continued OPM Stonewalling

I don’t normally post every back-and-forth in my attempts to shake things loose from the bureaucracy (as there are many and they are generally boring). However, it has been 68 days since I submitted a FOIA request to OPM requesting the responses to Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) Program Carrier Letter 2014-17 (which announced that OPM would continue to discriminate on the basis of gender identity at the behest of insurers) in order to get a sense of how many insurers would actually be offering trans-inclusive health insurance in plan year 2015.  To date, OPM has failed to respond to the FOIA request, including not even acknowledging receipt.

Since they’ve decided to stonewall, I’ve decided to escalate.  First, I’ve now included the Office of Civil Rights at my employing agency, since OPM is continuing to discriminate against all transgender Federal employees, myself included.

Second, in the coming days, I will be referring the matter to my Senator, Sen. Tim Kaine, because letters from the Hill tend to actually force responses loose from Federal agencies.  The letter will also address the complete lack of response OPM has had to my Petition for Reconsideration, filed back in August, to their “nondiscrimination” rule that still allows discrimination against transgender Federal employees through FEHB.

By the time I receive a response, it may well be “open season,” the period of the year when insurers plans for the next year are posted online for anyone to review any plan.  However, I nonetheless hope OPM responds, as manually culling through volume after volume of plan brochures to find which are discriminating and which are not is a heap of unnecessary work given that OPM requested (and presumably received) a simple list of which insurers are which.

2014 07 29 - OPM FOIA Request for Plan Response to CL 2014-172014 10 05 - Third FOIA Attempt to OPM - Insurer Responses to FEHB CL 2014-17