Trans News Friday: Courtroom Wins, Classroom Fights
Oregon was part of the coalition that just won in federal court, and the win keeps gender-affirming care under Obamacare’s cost protections. A Kansas judge handed one trans woman her driver's license back, and two school boards showed us what it looks like to stand by a trans teacher, or cave. Here's the week.
A Federal Judge Keeps Trans Care Under Obamacare’s Cost Protections
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services headquarters in Woodlawn, Maryland. Photo: Carol M. Highsmith via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
On Friday, August 14, U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton in Massachusetts struck down the part of the Trump administration's 2025 "Marketplace Integrity and Affordability" rule that pulled certain gender-affirming care out of the Affordable Care Act's essential health benefits. The court found the administration changed those benefit categories without following the process the ACA requires. The attorneys general of California, Massachusetts, and New Jersey co-led the lawsuit, and Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield was part of the multistate coalition.
That label matters for your wallet. Essential health benefits count toward the ACA's annual out-of-pocket cap and can't carry annual or lifetime dollar limits. Without it, prescriptions, lab work, and follow-up care could keep costing you even after you'd hit your plan's ceiling, as Healthcare Dive explained. The ruling covers individual and small-group plans, it doesn't force every insurer to cover this care, and the same judge upheld four other parts of the rule. "This court ruling shows that Trump can't use health care laws to engage in discrimination," Rayfield said.
Oregon already went further. House Bill 2002 bars insurers here from denying claims for medically necessary gender-affirming treatment. HHS hasn't said whether it'll appeal, so this one isn't over. Keep your explanation of benefits statements and your receipts.
Read the full story at Oregon DOJ →
A Kansas Judge Gives One Trans Woman Her Driver’s License Back
The historic Douglas County Courthouse in Lawrence, Kansas. Photo: Willjay via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
On Monday, August 17, Douglas County District Judge James McCabria temporarily restored Jamie Miller's driver's license. Kansas had voided it under SB 244, the law that invalidates driver's licenses and birth certificates for people who changed their gender markers. Miller, a Lawrence resident and military veteran, has a court order recognizing her as female and has held a Kansas license listing her as female since 2014.
The judge found she's likely to win her due process claim. He described the state's notices as a string of "you can appeal, no, wait" messages, with no real chance to be heard before or after her license was voided. The order covers only Miller, and he was clear his decision is "about the process, not the subject matter of the underlying dispute." A trial over the law is set to start September 29.
Miller told The Lawrence Times the first thing she did was go see her best friend. "I was excited to go to the bank this morning and be like, 'But here's my ID, you can actually look at it now,'" she said. Kansas wrote a law that turns showing your ID into a fight. One woman just won hers back, and a lot of trans Kansans are watching what comes next.
Read the full story at Lawrence Journal-World →
Two School Boards, Two Very Different Choices on Trans Teachers
The Wake County Public School System office in North Carolina. Photo: Pithon314 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
In North Carolina, the Wake County school board met August 18 after weeks of attacks on a trans music teacher at a local elementary school. Republican state Rep. Erin Paré posted about the hire and floated a bill requiring "gender-appropriate professional attire" for school employees, then Libs of TikTok and Moms for Liberty piled on. Supporters showed up too. "Let me be clear: no teacher should be targeted, harassed, or publicly vilified because of their gender identity," said Kelli Wilhelm, president of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP. The meeting ended with no action taken against the teacher.
In Tabor, Iowa, it went the other way. Ace Rios accepted an offer in July to teach music at Fremont-Mills, but the school board's vote to hire him failed on Wednesday, days before classes began, 3 News Now reported. Rios, who is trans, says he plans to bring in legal counsel. "I am extremely qualified to be here but I am being discriminated against because of the way that I look and my life outside of here," he said.
School boards answer to whoever shows up. In Wake County, people showed up for a teacher. Know your board, know when it meets, and be in the room before the agitators are.
Read the full story at Erin in the Morning →
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More This Week
Ohio's Bureau of Motor Vehicles abruptly stopped letting people change the gender marker on driver's licenses and state IDs to match their gender identity. The marker now has to match a birth certificate or passport, a change tied to language in the state budget (PinkNews). A new report from GLISTEN and the Trevor Project found that trans and nonbinary students whose identities are affirmed at school report a greater sense of belonging and higher grades, and that steps as simple as affirming a student's name and pronouns make them feel substantially safer (The 19th). And some joy in numbers: a Human Rights Campaign Foundation analysis of Census Bureau data found LGBTQ+ people now make up 12% of U.S. adults, a record high, and more than 10% of adults in 40 states (Them).
Outside the U.S., lawmakers in the Mexican state of Querétaro passed a law that will let adults correct the name and gender on their birth certificates through the civil registry, with no medical or psychological evaluations required. It only applies to Mexican nationals 18 and older (Expreso Querétaro). And if the UK is on your list, know that the Co-op, which employs about 54,000 people, dropped a policy letting trans staff use the toilets where they feel safest after new national guidance on single-sex spaces took effect this month. Lloyds Banking Group made a similar move in May (PinkNews).
What This Means for Portland
If you buy your own health insurance or get it through a small employer, this ruling means gender-affirming care can count as an essential health benefit again, with the out-of-pocket protections that come with it. Oregon's HB 2002 already bars insurers from denying medically necessary gender-affirming treatment, so if you get a denial or a bill that doesn't add up, call the Division of Financial Regulation's consumer hotline at 888-877-4894 or start with its gender-affirming care page. On the Oregon Health Plan? Call OHP Client Services at 1-800-273-0557 with coverage questions.
Moving here from Kansas, Ohio, or anywhere else that's turning your ID into a battleground? Trans Oregon has step-by-step guides for updating your name and gender marker once you land. If you're a trans teacher or school worker, Oregon law protects you from discrimination on the job. If an employer treats you differently because of who you are, contact the Bureau of Labor and Industries Civil Rights Division at 971-245-3844. Then look up when your school board meets, and go.
What This Means for Our Work
When states void people's IDs and school boards vote people out of jobs before the first bell, people start looking for somewhere they can just live. TRFAN, our emergency relocation program, helps them get here, Safe Haven Home Share helps them find housing with people who've got their back, and our Peer Support Services team helps people navigate OHP and find care, alongside partners like Dian’s Well, Folktime, and The Peer Company. Trans Town PDX keeps the community part of community going.
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