Light blue and pink are used to represent the transgender community. View Full Caption Shutterstock

CHICAGO — The city will soon cover sex reassignment surgeries for employees, making it the largest city in the United States to do so, according to the mayor's office.

The city is poised to add coverage of the surgeries, which is used by some some transgender people as part of their transition, to its health care benefits for all non-union employees, and it is working with labor partners to include coverage for union employees, according to a news release from the mayor's office.

The change would go into effect on Oct. 1 and would benefit employees and their dependents. The Benefits Committee is expected to approve the change at a Tuesday meeting, according to the mayor's office.

National GLAAD board member Christina Kahrl says it's an incremental and largely symbolic change that doesn't address the health needs of most trans people. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Ted Cox

“Chicago is known for being a city that is welcoming to all and inclusive of every resident, and this new policy is in line with our efforts to support the rights and well-being of transgender individuals,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel in a statement. “With this change, Chicago will ensure that transgender city employees are able to receive the medical care that they need.”

The city is finalizing the criteria that people will need to meet to receive coverage for sex reassignment surgeries and which procedures will be covered, according to the mayor's office.

Yet the move was not immediately embraced as a cure-all by the city's trans community.

"It's the classic glass-half-full, glass-half-empty situation," said Christina Kahrl, a Chicago sportswriter with ESPN who is on the national board of GLAAD. "It's good that the city is doing the right thing in this situation. But on the one hand, it had to come at the business end of a threatened suit. And on the other hand it doesn't make it any better for the vast majority of trans people in Illinois who are not automatically included in their health care. Their specific health care needs are not covered by health insurance in this state."

Kahrl called the city's reform "one of those incremental steps that's awesome, and it's a great symbolic step," but added that it doesn't address the needs of trans people city- or statewide.

According to Kahrl, the city can't compel wider health coverage on its own, and the state General Assembly has proved reluctant to take up trans issues, or even a statewide health exchange within the Affordable Care Act, thus forcing trans people to go to court to demand equal coverage, which is what forced the city's hand here.

The mayor's office acknowledged the move to cover sex reassignment surgeries comes after the American Civil Liberties Union alerted the city of health insurance coverage being denied a transgender employee.

ACLU attorney John Knight said Wednesday that he wrote the city only two weeks ago on behalf of a trans employee. The ACLU, he said, took the position that the lack of full health coverage was "illegal" and "discriminatory."

"Apparently the city agreed," Knight said. "We're thrilled, of course," he added. "It's nice when it's so easy."

Knight pointed out that city, state and even federal agencies "have been persuaded to change it without being sued, but there's still a lot of work to do."

In any case, the move improves the position of city trans employees without increasing premiums overall.

"This change in policy will not affect employee premiums," said mayoral spokeswoman Shannon Breymaier. "That said, each individual will have a lifetime cap of $100,000 for gender reassignment services."

Breymaier added that the city budget for health costs "is budgeted as a whole and is not broken down by expected costs for each type of medical procedure."

San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia include sex reassignment surgeries in their health care benefits, but Chicago will become the largest city to do so when the change is approved.

For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here: