A Georgia county asked a federal appeals court on Tuesday to overturn a ruling that it illegally discriminated against a sheriff’s deputy by failing to pay for her gender-affirmation surgery.
But lawyers for Houston County Sgt. Anna Lange urged a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reject the appeal. They said during a hearing in Atlanta that the U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that denying Lange insurance coverage for the procedure is illegal sex discrimination.
Lange, an investigator for the Houston County sheriff’s office, sued Sheriff Cullen Talton and the county in 2019 after she was denied coverage.
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U.S. District Court Judge Marc Treadwell ruled in 2022 that the county’s refusal to cover Lange’s prescribed gender-affirmation surgery amounted to illegal sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Treadwell’s order cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision finding that a Michigan funeral home couldn’t fire an employee for being transgender.
The judge ordered the county’s insurance plan to pay for the surgery, and Lange eventually underwent the procedure. A jury awarded Lange $60,000 in damages in 2022.
The county wants to undo Treadwell’s order and the damage award, seeking to argue its case before a jury.
Lange expressed confidence after the hearing that the order and the damage award would stand, saying, “The law is on our side, clearly.”
Houston County argues that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prohibits firing people because they are transgender doesn’t apply to health insurance.
The county also argues that its exclusion of gender-affirmation surgery isn’t discriminatory because the plan pays for some other treatments. A lawyer for the county likens the county’s refusal to pay for Lange’s surgery to its refusal to pay for hearing aids…
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