Over the past few months, the critical importance of having a health care system that is accessible to the most marginalized among us has become impossible to ignore. Access to a health care provider means a transgender person is one step closer to being able to live authentically. This Pride Month, TLDEF is participating in the Give OUT campaign, and we have the chance to earn thousands in additional prize money if we have the most individual donors. You can help by starting a fundraiser to support health equity for transgender people.

Aetna, a CVS Health company, with the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF) and national civil rights law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, today announced that Aetna has expanded coverage of gender-affirming surgery to include breast augmentation for transfeminine members of most of its commercial plans. The announcement is the result of collaboration between Aetna, TLDEF, Cohen Milstein, and several transgender beneficiaries.

Today the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF) released the following statement calling for the swift passage of the Equality Act. The Equality Act, introduced in the United States House today, makes explicit that discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation is a form of sex discrimination in violation of federal law. It also extends sex discrimination protections to public accommodations and federal programs.

We look forward to working with the incoming Biden-Harris Administration to repair the harm inflicted upon transgender people and so many others. But we face a long road ahead towards achieving the equity and justice that transgender people and our families nationwide have been denied. We remain at the ready to defend against attacks on transgender people and look forward to working with the new administration to advance a better future for our community.

Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF)  and Lambda Legal 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. TLDEF and Lambda Legal 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.

organizations in demanding that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) permanently halt implementation of a proposed new rule that would invite insurance companies, hospitals, doctors, nurses, and other providers to illegally deny patients care because of who they are, despite protections mandated by the Affordable Care Act.