Healthcare[edit]
Transgender people confront two major legal issues within the healthcare system: access to health care for gender transitioning and discrimination by health care workers.
Even though there is medical consensus that hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery (SRS) are medically necessary for many transgender people, the kinds of health care associated with gender transition are sometimes misunderstood as cosmetic, experimental or simply unnecessary. This has led to public and private insurance companies denying coverage for such treatment.[98] Courts have repeatedly ruled that these treatments may be medically necessary and have recognized gender dysphoria as a legitimate medical condition constituting a "serious medical need"[99]
The idea that transition-related care is cosmetic or experimental has been ruled as discriminatory and out of touch with current medical thinking. The AMA and WPATH have specifically rejected these arguments, and courts have affirmed their conclusion.[100][101] In a case brought by Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), O'Donnabhain v. Commissioner, for instance, the Internal Revenue Service lost its claim that such treatments were cosmetic and experimental when a transgender woman deducted her SRS procedures as a medical expense. Courts have also found that psychotherapy alone is insufficient treatment for gender dysphoria, and that for some people, SRS may be the only effective treatment.[99]
Transgender people also sometimes experience discrimination by healthcare professionals, who have refused to treat them for conditions both related and unrelated to their gender identity.[102][103][104]
The Affordable Care Act of 2010 prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded health care facilities, and in 2012 the federal Department of Health and Human Services clarified that this includes discrimination based on transgender status. The Act also forbids insurance providers from refusing to cover a person based on a pre-existing condition, including being transgender. Further protections are provided in jurisdictions that have laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity or gender expression in public accommodations - and under medical malpractice and misconduct law.[105]
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TRANSGENDER SCHOOL LAWS
Non-FictionDoes your school discriminate you for being transgender? Yeah well here are all the rules I could find about how schools treat transgender students.
