While memorials to the victims of the Pulse massacre were taking place marking the four year anniversary of the attack, the Trump Administration had another message for LGBTQ people: They finalized a rule that would remove nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people in the areas of health care and health insurance. The rule would put transgender people in an even more difficult and often dangerous healthcare environment.
The rule defines “sex discrimination” as discrimination based on whether someone is male or female, reversing the Obama update that included ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity.’
Under the new rule, explains Lindsey Dawson of the HIV Policiy at the Kaiser Family Foundation to NPR, a transgender person could be turned away from seeking medical treatment.
Also covered in the new rule — an insurance company could “charge higher premiums or other fees for those who are LGBTQ [or] cancel or deny coverage,” Dawson says.
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Related: Republican Party renews attacks on marriage equality & queer rights just in time for pride
Mari Brighe, a freelance writer and transgender woman from Detroit, calls the rule “terrifying.”
“I can relate a decade of stories about getting terrible health care because I’m trans,” Brighe says. “We walk into any given health care situation not knowing whether doctors are going to treat us well, whether we’re going to get high quality care, whether any given, random health care person is going to be terrible to us.”
“The way that [rule] reads to me is that people could refuse to collect your COVID specimen because they don’t want to touch a trans person,” she adds. “That’s a recipe for spreading a really terrible pandemic among a really, really vulnerable population.”
The finalized new rule may face opposition in the senate and is almost sure to be challenged in court.
It is set to go into effect in 90 days.
The news comes the same day it was announced the official 2020 Republican party platform renews attacks on marriage equality and queer rights.
Yooper
Quelle surprise.
Gary Q VV
Trump is a monster to the LGBTQ community. His hate towards us is almost as great as his hate towards President Obama. I believe it stems from a fear that he’s neither a strong man nor decent human.
ScottOnEarth
Sweet jesus, trump is truly the Anti-Christ. Rather than use his authority to help improve the quality of people lives, he seems to spend all of his time trying to destroy them. He is rolling-back all progress made under the Obama administration, including human rights and environmental protection initiatives. What will happen if this beast is president for four more years?
Cam
So will the same right wing trolls that always talk about how great Trump is stay off this thread completely or come on here trying to deflect the topic by screaming about Hillary’s outfit or Obama’s haircut?
Trump is a bigot who is bad for America. Hmmmm, just replace “Trump is” in that sentence with “Republicans are”
Gay Thomas
I have never met a gay Trump supporter. Ever. We aren’t stupid.
Kangol2
You’d be surprised, There are quite a few hardcore gay Trump supporters who regularly post on this site. I won’t name names, but they enthusiastically support this anti-gay, anti-trans monster, and defend him to the nth degree. Maybe it’s the tax cuts, maybe it’s the white supremacy, maybe it’s the utter chaos he’s brought to everything, but they adore him. Should they ever encounter discrimination in the workplace or any aspect of their lives that one of the many homophobic conservative judges he’s crammed onto our federal courts decides to uphold, I doubt we hear the tiny violin playing sadly for them, since they had to vote for and support this man until the bitter end.
Cam
@Kangol2
I don’t know, if you look at their grammar and style, it’s more like there is one poster who has about 5 different screenames it rotates.
michel_banen
The devil is orange.
Scout
If he gets re-elected in November, we will be complicit in abetting his win if everyone of us who’s old enough doesn’t get out and vote!
Tombear
I guess because I’m an evil atheist I hope Trump contracts Covid 19!