US Employees Lodge Complaints Against Trump Administration Over Gender Affirming Care Ban

A group of United States federal employees has filed a formal legal complaint against the Trump administration, challenging a new policy that removes coverage for gender affirming care from federal health insurance programmes.

The complaint argues that the policy constitutes unlawful sex-based discrimination and disproportionately harms transgender workers and their families.

Complaints argue gender affirming care ban will disadvantage workers

The action was lodged with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Thursday by the Human Rights Campaign on behalf of affected employees.

It follows an August announcement from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirming that federal employee and US Postal Service health insurance plans would no longer cover “chemical and surgical modification of an individual’s sex traits through medical interventions”.

According to the complaint, the decision places transgender federal employees, as well as those with transgender partners, children, or dependants, at a significant disadvantage in the workplace.

Human Rights Campaign Foundation president Kelley Robinson said the move was ideologically driven rather than evidence based, stating: “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.”

The complaint includes testimony from four current federal workers employed across the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the US Postal Service.

One postal worker described how the policy would directly affect their daughter, who has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and whose doctors have recommended puberty blockers and potentially hormone replacement therapy. Under the new rules, those treatments would no longer be covered.

The filing notes that the complainants are acting not only for themselves, but on behalf of a broader “class of similarly situated federal employees” who rely on comprehensive health coverage as a condition of their employment.

This latest development forms part of a wider pattern of restrictions on transgender healthcare under the Trump administration, particularly for minors.

In December, the Department of Health and Human Services released proposals that would prevent Medicare and Medicaid funds from being used by hospitals that provide gender affirming care to children.

Senior administration figures, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, have described gender affirming care for minors as “malpractice”.

However, these positions conflict with guidance from major medical bodies such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, both of which support gender affirming care as evidence based and medically necessary for some patients.

The news follows similar attacks on trans healthcare around the world, particularly here in Australia where the Queensland Government have extended their ban on gender affirming treatments for children under 18 by five years, with the Northern Territory recently announcing they would be following suit.