The Biden Administration Just Issued a Rule Protecting Transgender Folks from Health Care Discrimination
Read the Full Article from Shape
Going to the doctor can be an intensely vulnerable and stressful experience for anyone. Now, imagine you went in for an appointment only for a doctor to refuse you proper care or make comments that left you feeling unwelcome or like you couldn't trust them with your health.
That's the reality for a lot of transgender and LGBTQ+ folks (and people of color, for that matter) — and especially so during the last presidential administration. Thankfully, a new policy from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services took a major step to change that.
On Monday, the Biden administration announced that transgender and other LGBTQ+ people are now protected against health care discrimination, effective immediately. This relief comes a year after a Trump-era rule defined "sex" as the biological sex and gender assigned at birth, meaning that hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies could deny adequate care to transgender people. (Because reminder: Trans folks often identify with a gender other than their original sex at birth.)