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Anna Lange was denied coverage for gender-affirming care. Federal judges reheard her case this week
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LISTEN: On Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, the federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeals heard the case of Anna Lange, a sergeant with the Houston County Sheriff’s Office in Middle Georgia. GPB’s Sofi Gratas spoke with Lange late last year.
Sgt. Anna Lange sued her employer and other officials in 2019 after they refused to allow her insurance to cover what for many transgender people is considered medically necessary health care. For Lange, that was a vaginoplasty, a surgery that would help her transition.
The outcomes of Lange’s case could impact transgender people across the 11th Circuit's coverage area of Georgia, Alabama and Florida as well as the nation. Lange had support from the U.S. Department of Justice until the department pulled out of the case days before the hearing on Tuesday.
The case was recently reheard by a full panel of judges because Houston County appealed a majority decision by the 11th Circuit last year that essentially said a health insurance provider can be held liable for discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 if they denied coverage for gender-affirming care to a transgender employee because of that employee's identity.
Houston County maintains that Lange was denied surgery because the county health insurance doesn’t cover specific procedures, and not because she is transgender. The state of Alabama filed an amicus brief in the case and presented an argument on Tuesday siding with Houston County.
But some judges on Tuesday stated that if a procedure like a vaginoplasty is covered for a cisgender person, but excluded in Lange’s case, it could be a violation under another Supreme Court decision that deals with discrimination, Bostock v. Clayton County.
Lange's attorney's maintain that the exclusion is sex-based discrimination.
A full recording of the latest hearing can be found here.
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