BREAKING: Callen-Lorde Sues Administration

On Thursday, July 9th, Callen-Lorde and the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), the Transgender Law Center (TLC), the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF), the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation (CHLPI) of Harvard Law School, and law firm Hogan Lovells filed a lawsuit on behalf of Callen-Lorde and our co-plaintiffs (Darren Lazor, Fenway Health, Transgender Emergency Fund, Equality California, and Campaign for Southern Equality) against the Trump-Pence administration’s rule that that would roll back the Health Care Rights Law (also known as section 1557 of the ACA). The Health Care Rights Law protects patients from discrimination in health care and is the first broad prohibition of sex discrimination in health care in federal law.

This “notice of proposed rulemaking” (NPRM) would roll back the Health Care Rights Law, deeply impacting the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ people – particularly trans and non-binary people – people seeking reproductive health or sexual health services, people whose first language is not English, immigrants, people of color, and people with disabilities. If finalized, this rule would most deeply harm people at the intersections of these identities, of whom it is our mission to serve.

The rule was issued amid a pandemic, unprecedented unemployment enacting a major loss of access to health insurance, an epidemic of police violence against Black people, and a crisis of violence against Black trans people. In the last two weeks alone, six Black trans women have been found dead. Brayla Stone in Little Rock, AR, Merci Mack in Dallas, TX, Shaki Peters in Amite City, LA, Draya McCarty in Baton Rouge, LA, Tatiana Hall in Philadelphia, PA, and Bree Black in Pompano Beach, FL.

Trans people already face disproportionate discrimination in health care settings, including mistreatment by insurers and humiliation and harassment by doctors – problems that are exacerbated for Black trans people, and trans people living in rural regions and the U.S. South. In seeking to deny trans people access to the health care they need, the Trump Administration is putting trans people, and especially Black trans women, in danger through deliberately harmful governmental action.

In the coming weeks, we will be sharing actions you can take to contact lawmakers via comments on social media. Please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to help bolster our role in this pushback!