Monthly Archives: February 2016

Email to Gov. Daugaard of South Dakota re “Bathroom” Bill

South Dakota is considering a bill requiring students to use restrooms, locker rooms, and similar facilities as the gender they were assigned at birth, regardless of their gender identity.  The bill is currently with the governor to be signed or vetoed.  I wrote a short email encouraging the governor to veto the bill.

Dear Governor Daugaard:

I write to strongly encourage you to veto HB1008, which would be a first-in-the-nation attack on transgender people. Specifically, it would attack the some of the most vulnerable of transgender people, transgender students.

As you have no doubt heard in recent days, being transgender is about an incongruence between a person’s gender they were assigned at birth (i.e. what is listed on their birth certificate, if it has not been amended) and their own deeply felt sense of their own gender (i.e. their gender identity). HB1008 tells transgender children that, no matter their gender identity, no matter who they truly are, they must use the facilities associated with their gender assigned at birth. Contrary to the bill’s stated intent, HB1008 will guarantee that (transgender) boys will be required to use girl’s facilities, and (transgender) girls will be required to use boy’s facilities. If you truly want to keep boys with boys and girls with girls, you must veto HB1008.

Signing HB1008 would paint a target on the back of every transgender student in South Dakota. Forced to use the wrong restrooms, they would suffering abuse at the hands of the state on a daily basis, and would be at much higher risk of verbal, emotional, and physical abuse at the hands of their peers. Contrary to what the bill’s sponsors have told you, it is *transgender* students who have something to fear from restrooms, not cisgender (i.e. not transgender) students.

Ultimately, this is a simple call. Please do the right thing and veto this bill. Don’t let South Dakota be the first in the nation to enact this horrible legislation.

Sincerely,
— Emily T. Prince, Esq.

FOIA to HHS – Complaints for Denial of Coverage for Transition-Related Care

While the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finalizes its proposed rule prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity in covered health programs, the question remains: what has HHS been doing since March 2010 to enforce the statute which prohibited such discrimination, 42 U.S.C. § 18116?  To that end, I have FOIAed the following documents from HHS:

  • Any and all documents since March 23, 2010 establishing a complaint against a health insurance carrier for discrimination on the basis of gender identity, specifically by denying coverage for transition-related care such as mental health treatment, hormone replacement therapy, or gender affirming surgeries such as genital reconstructive surgery.
  • Any and all documents since March 23, 2010 closing a complaint against a health insurance carrier for discrimination on the basis of gender identity, specifically by denying coverage for transition-related care such as mental health treatment, hormone replacement therapy, or gender affirming surgeries such as genital reconstructive surgery.
  • Any and all documents establishing current guidance, rules, or similar content used by the Department of Health and Human Services to determine how to resolve complaints against a health insurance carrier for discrimination on the basis of gender identity, specifically by denying coverage for transition-related care such as mental health treatment, hormone replacement therapy, or gender affirming surgeries such as genital reconstructive surgery.

The focus on transition-related care is purposeful; while we know that HHS has been taking some action to address other forms of discrimination against transgender people, I am unaware of any action by HHS, outside of its pending rule, to address this endemic form of discrimination by health insurance companies.  Complaints have been made (including one complaint I filed in response to particularly overt discrimination by CareFirst, filed in November 2014), but they don’t seem to ever get resolved.

The FOIA response should reveal how many complaints there are on this issue, how many have been closed (and what disposition), and how HHS formally considers them.