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Anna Lange sued in 2019 after being denied gender-affirming surgery under her county’s health plan. She received the procedure in 2022 after an appeals court ruled in her favor.
A historic antidiscrimination ruling in favor of a transgender sheriff’s deputy has been voided by one of the most conservative federal courts in the nation.
Houston County deputy Anna Lange filed a lawsuit in 2019 after being repeatedly denied insurance coverage for gender-affirming surgery under the county’s employee health plan. A U.S. district court in Georgia ruled in 2022that the denial violated federal civil rights law, and in May, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit affirmed the ruling 2-1.
The full 11th Circuit vacated the decision Thursday, with the majority of its 12 judges voting for the court to reconsider Lange's case, six of whom were appointed by former president Donald Trump. They have yet to set a date for the new hearing, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
The decision follows an appeal of the May ruling from Houston County. Officials argued at the time that because the county’s health insurance coverage “excludes coverage for sex change surgeries for anyone — no matter their sex or gender identity" it is somehow not discriminatory towards transgender people.
11th Circuit Judge Charles R. Wilson disagreed, writing instead in the 2-1 decision that “because transgender persons are the only plan participants who qualify for gender-affirming surgery, the plan denies health care coverage based on transgender status."
Lange came out as a transgender woman in 2017 after working for the Houston County's Sheriff's Office over 11 years — since 2006. She was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and was recommended by her doctor, two psychologists, and a surgeon to undergo gender-affirming surgery. Lange underwent the procedure in 2022 after the appeals court ruled in her favor.
Lange was awarded $60,000 in damages by a Macon jury in 2022, with the panel determining that Houston County had violated the federal Civil Rights Act. The county has since spent over $2 million fighting her case, though Lange and her lawyers have argued gender-affirming surgery “costs orders of magnitude less.”
