The Biden administration announced expansive new protections on Friday for gay and transgender medical patients, prohibiting federally funded health providers and insurers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. This new rule, which reverses a policy instituted by the Trump administration, fulfills part of President Biden’s vow to restore civil rights protections for L.G.B.T.Q. people that were eliminated by his predecessor.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra stated, “Today’s rule is a giant step forward for this country toward a more equitable and inclusive health care system, and means that Americans across the country now have a clear way to act on their rights against discrimination when they go to the doctor, talk with their health plan or engage with health programs run by H.H.S.”
The rule overhauls federal policy in an area that has become a political flashpoint, with more than 20 Republican-led states banning or restricting gender-affirming care for minors in recent years. It is likely to draw legal challenges, as it has now taken three different forms under three successive presidents.
The Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010, established a sweeping set of civil rights protections in the U.S. health system through Section 1557, prohibiting discrimination against patients based on various factors. In 2016, the Obama administration issued a less expansive version of the rule that the Biden administration finalized on Friday, requiring health providers to provide medically appropriate treatment for transgender patients.
Conservative opponents of the rule have argued that it could coerce doctors into performing medical services they object to, including on religious grounds. However, the rule finalized by the Biden administration on Friday states that it preserves religious exemptions and “does not require or mandate the provision of any particular medical service.”
After the Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s prohibition on discrimination based on sex also applied to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, the Biden administration began to reverse the Trump administration policy.
Groups that pushed for the reversal of the Trump-era rule hailed the Biden administration’s decision on Friday. “Countless Americans can now find solace in knowing that they cannot be turned away from health care they need just because of who they are or who they love,” said Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign.
