North Carolina can’t deny gender-affirming care to state employees under state health plan: federal judge

North Carolina can’t deny gender-affirming services to state employees who receive health insurance through the state’s health care plan, a federal judge ruled Friday in a major victory for transgender rights advocates.

U.S. District Judge Loretta C. Biggs agreed with the plaintiffs who argued that the North Carolina State Health Plan for Teachers and State Employees discriminated against them for its “categorical exclusion” of gender-affirming treatments.

The court found that the plan’s exclusion “discriminates based on sex and transgender status in violation of the Equal Protection Clause and discriminates because of sex in violation of Title VII [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964],” which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.

The lawsuit was filed in March 2019 by the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund and Lambda Lega on behalf of eight current and former state employees and their children after they were denied coverage under their plan for medically necessary health care because of their gender identity.

“Like all parents, all we wanted for our child was lifesaving, medically necessary healthcare,” Michael D. Bunting Jr., employed by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said in a statement shared with the Daily News.

Bunting, who’s the father of a 17-year-old transgender son, spoke about the difficulties the discriminatory policy brought to his family.

“Struggling to secure essential care for your child, while watching them be targeted for discrimination, is devastating,” he said. “We hope that no other parent has to struggle this way in the future.”

Tara Borelli, Lambda Legal senior counsel, applauded the judge’s ruling, calling it “a significant step toward expanding access to nondiscriminatory healthcare for the transgender public servants” in the state.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court denied North Carolina’s petition seeking review of a lower-court ruling that the NCSHP wasn’t entitled to sovereign immunity and it could be sued if its actions violated the Affordable Care Act’s nondiscrimination provisions.

“We are pleased that the court has recognized this exclusion of medically necessary care to transgender state employees as unlawful discrimination,” said Borelli. “North Carolina was on the wrong side of history, and we hope it closes this unfortunate chapter.”

David Brown, TLDEF’s legal director, also celebrated the ruling, noting that “gender-affirming healthcare is essential healthcare.”

“We are thrilled to know that moving forward our clients and other transgender North Carolina state employees and state employees with transgender dependents will finally have access to this lifesaving care,” he added.