Lambda Legal and Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF) filed a federal lawsuit against North Carolina officials today for discrimination in state employee health care. The North Carolina State Health Plan (NCSHP), the state employee health plan, categorically excludes coverage for gender-confirming health care. Lambda Legal and TLDEF are representing several current and former state employees and their children who were denied coverage under the plan for medically necessary health care because they are transgender.

“In 2018 I was finally in a position to move forward with surgical care, an important part of my transition,,” said Julia McKeown, an assistant professor in the College of Education at North Carolina State University. “I did not expect I would have to raid my retirement and savings accounts for treatment prescribed by my doctors, when other state employees would be covered for the same procedures. It is demeaning and fundamentally unfair.”

"The only reason our plaintiffs are being denied coverage for medically necessary health care is because they are transgender or they have children who are transgender," said Lambda Legal Staff Attorney Taylor Brown. "In 2017, NCSHP covered medically necessary gender-confirming health care, but then State Treasurer Dale Folwell took office and revoked the coverage. This is clearly unlawful discrimination that jeopardizes the health of hardworking state employees and their families. It stigmatizes them and brands them as second-class. I am a transgender woman, born and raised in North Carolina and an alumna of UNC-Chapel Hill. This kind of targeted discrimination is shameful to me personally and it does not represent the true values of this state or North Carolinians.”