WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is facing a new lawsuit from a group of government employees who are affected by a new policy taking effect Thursday that eliminates coverage of gender-affirming care in federal health insurance programs.

The complaint, filed Thursday on behalf of employees by the Human Rights Campaign, is in response to an August announcement by the Office of Personnel Management that it would no longer cover “chemical and surgical modification of an individual’s sexual traits through medical interventions” in health insurance programs for federal employees and U.S. Postal Service workers.

The complaint contends that denying gender-affirming care coverage is discrimination based on sex and asks the personnel office to rescind the policy.

“This policy is not about costs or care, it is about pushing transgender people and people with transgender spouses, children and dependents out of the federal workforce,” Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, said in a statement announcing the measure.

The United States Capitol building is seen behind the Transgender Pride flag during the Trans Day of Visibility rally on the National Mall on March 31, 2025 in Washington. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
The United States Capitol building is seen behind the Transgender Pride flag during the Trans Day of Visibility rally on the National Mall on March 31, 2025 in Washington. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

Kayla Bartkowski via Getty Images

The complaint, filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, includes testimony from four current federal workers at the State Department, Health and Human Services and the Postal Service who would be directly affected by the elimination of coverage.

For example, the Postal Service employee has a daughter whose doctors recommended she receive puberty blockers and potentially hormone replacement therapy for her diagnosed gender dysphoria, which would not be covered by the new OPM policy, according to the complaint.

The complaint states that the workers are filing the claim on behalf of themselves and a “class of similarly situated federal employees.”

The Trump administration has taken other steps to restrict care for transgender Americans, particularly minors. In December, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released proposals that would block gender-based care for minors, including a policy that would prohibit Medicare and Medicaid dollars from hospitals that provide such care to children.

Senior Trump officials, such as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., call gender-affirming care for minors “bad practice.” But such restrictions run counter to recommendations from major medical groups such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.