Background: Advocates gather for a rally at the state Capitol complex in Nashville, Tenn., to oppose a series of bills that target the LGBTQ community, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023 (AP Photo/Jonathan Mattise, File). Inset: President Donald Trump in the East Room at the White House in Washington on January 29, 2025 (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Sipa USA/Sipa via AP Images).
A collective of federal workers has launched a legal challenge against the Trump administration regarding its recent policy that excludes federal health insurance from covering gender-affirming medical treatments.
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRCF) initiated the complaint on Thursday, asserting that the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) stance “clearly discriminates based on sex.”
According to the class-action lawsuit, in August, OPM announced that starting in 2026, medical procedures that alter an individual’s sex characteristics, including gender transition services, will be excluded from coverage under the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) and Postal Service Health Benefits (PSHB) programs. This policy aligns with the Trump administration’s broader agenda to limit or prohibit gender-affirming care, as indicated by a recent directive.
With the PSHB 2026 plan already effective as of Thursday and the FEHB plan commencing on January 11, this coverage exclusion is set to affect federal employees and their families immediately. The HRCF criticized the policy as “another instance of the Trump administration’s relentless campaign against transgender individuals.”
The individuals represented in the HRCF’s complaint include a State Department employee enrolled in the FEHB plan who requires a procedure to address gender dysphoria, and a Postal Service worker under the PSHB plan, whose daughter needs a puberty blocker that is covered by the parent’s insurance, among others.
For these federal employees, the revocation of coverage signifies more than just a policy shift; it is perceived as a direct assault on transgender rights.
“Starting today, untold numbers of federal employees and their families will be left out to dry at the hands of a shameless administration hell-bent on targeting the transgender community,” said Human Rights Campaign Foundation President Kelley Robinson on Thursday. “This policy is not about cost or care – it is about driving transgender people and people with transgender spouses, children, and dependents out of the federal workforce.”
“These federal employees will now be forced into an impossible situation that pits them between their jobs and access to the care they need,” Robinson added. “That is discrimination, plain and simple, and the HRC Foundation refuses to let it stand without a fight. Our litigation seeks to honor those federal workers and preserve the rights, respect, and dignity they deserve.”
The Department of Justice declined to comment when reached by Law&Crime.
The federal workers seek relief in many forms, including the rescission of the OPM’s policy, a declaratory judgment that states that the coverage exclusion violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act — which prohibits discrimination based on sex, retroactive coverage for care denied under the new policy, a permanent injunction barring OPM from “any enforcement of the categorical coverage exclusion of gender-affirming medical care,” and training initiated by OPM regarding equal employment opportunity laws.
If the complaint is not resolved with OPM, the complainants will seek class claims before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and possibly pursue a class action lawsuit in federal court, Reuters reported.
