A group of US federal government employees has launched a formal legal complaint against the Trump administration over a new policy that strips coverage for gender-affirming healthcare from federal insurance schemes.
Legal Challenge Filed on First Day of Policy
The complaint was filed on Thursday, 1 January 2026, the very day the controversial policy came into force. It was submitted to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by the Human Rights Campaign on behalf of the affected workers.
The policy change, announced by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in August, removes coverage for what it terms "chemical and surgical modification of an individual’s sex traits through medical interventions." This impacts health insurance programmes for federal employees and United States Postal Service staff.
Workers Argue Policy is Discriminatory
The legal filing argues that denying coverage for gender-affirming treatments constitutes unlawful sex-based discrimination. It calls on the personnel office to rescind the policy immediately.
Kelley Robinson, President of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, stated: "This policy is not about cost or care — it is about driving transgender people and people with transgender spouses, children, and dependents out of the federal workforce."
The complaint includes testimonies from four current federal workers at the State Department, Health and Human Services, and the Postal Service. One Postal Service employee described how the policy affects their daughter, whose doctors recommended puberty blockers and potential hormone therapy for diagnosed gender dysphoria—treatments now excluded under the OPM rules.
Part of Broader Crackdown on Trans Healthcare
This move is the latest in a series of steps by the Trump administration to restrict access to gender-affirming care, particularly for minors. In December, the US Department of Health and Human Services proposed rules to block such care for young people, including a policy that would withhold Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals providing it to children.
Senior officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have labelled gender-affirming care for minors as "malpractice." This stance directly contradicts the established guidance of major medical bodies like the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The complaint notes that the four named workers are bringing the claim on behalf of themselves and a wider "class of similarly situated federal employees" who are impacted by the removal of this essential health coverage.
