Asked by board member Nancy Thompson whether the state could make the decision on its own to remove the exclusions regardless of whether federal rules require it, Wieske said it could be done, but not without some cost.

After more than three hours of deliberation in closed session, the board voted to remove the transgender benefits if four contingencies are met: a court ruling or an administrative action that invalidates the federal HHS rule, compliance with state law, renegotiation of contracts that maintain or reduce premium costs for the state and a final opinion from the state DOJ that says removing the benefits does not violate the board's fiduciary duties.

To reinstate the exclusion would be “mean-spirited,” said Darla Lannert, transgender health consultant at OutReach, a Madison-based LGBT community center. Lannert said she thinks the atmosphere has changed since Republican Donald Trump was elected president, and said she believes Walker and the DOJ are bullying transgender people. She was one of dozens of transgender people and advocates who attended Friday's meeting.

“What everybody’s angry about is we have marriage equality, so they wanted somebody else to pick on, so they decided to pick on trans people,” Lannert said.