Trump administration proposes new rules that would weaken protections for transgender people seeking out healthcare and homeless shelters
- The Department of Health and Human Services wants to eliminate a policy that prohibits health care providers from discriminating against transgender patients
- It follows a proposal by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to allow homeless shelters to discriminate in how they house transgender people
- HHS officials say the change will make regulations 'more consistent' with other agencies and save money from reduced paperwork related to transgender care
- HUD says its proposal would offer federally funded 'homeless shelter providers the flexibility to determine under their own policy what a person's sex is'
- Critics say the policies are discriminatory and damaging to transgender people
The Trump administration this week proposed rolling back protections for transgender people seeking health care and housing in homeless shelters.
The Department of Health and Human Services proposed its change on Friday, which would eliminate an Obama-era policy that prohibited health care providers from discriminating against transgender patients.
Specifically, the change repeals a prior definition that included transgender people in the language protecting against discrimination based on sex.
In its proposal, HHS said that the change makes regulations 'more consistent' with other agencies and save money from reduced paperwork.
'The American people are tired of unnecessary regulations getting in the way of access to affordable healthcare, and today's proposal would remove $3.6 billion in regulatory burdens that are ultimately being passed down to patients,' said Roger Severino, director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
HHS Office of Civil Rights Director Roger Severino (shown here in a file photo) said that changes that will weaken protections for transgender people seeking health care will make policy more consistent with other agencies and save money from reduced paperwork
Critics say that the change will undo protections that guarantee transgender people access to doctors and insurance coverage, including for transition-related care.
'Predicated on little more than prejudice, this proposal will abandon two million Americans who already face significant barriers to accessing adequate and life-saving health care,' said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality.
'This is not about free health care or special treatment,' she added. 'It's about the right of every American to be treated with dignity when they walk into an emergency room, meet a new doctor, or find the right insurance plan.'
The announcement follows a separate rule change proposal this week from the Department of Housing and Urban Development that would allow federally funded homeless shelters to make decisions about how to house transgender people – allowing for them to be turned away or placed them in areas designated for the wrong gender.
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The change would allow single-sex facilities, and shelters with separate sections and bathrooms for each gender to consider 'privacy, safety, practical concerns, religious beliefs,' and would offer 'local homeless shelter providers the flexibility to determine under their own policy what a person's sex is,' according to an agency fact sheet on the issue.
In a summary of the proposed change, HUD said the switch was consistent with the agency's 'policy of ensuring that its programs are open to all eligible individuals and families regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.'
Supporters of transgender rights have condemned the proposal as legalizing discrimination.
'This is a heartless attack on some of the most vulnerable people in our society,' Keisling said. 'The programs impacted by this rule are life-saving for transgender people, particularly youth rejected by their families, and a lack of stable housing fuels the violence and abuse that takes the lives of many transgender people of color across the country.'
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson (left) testifies at a House Financial Services Committee oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 21, 2019. Representative Jennifer Wexton, a Democrat from Virginia, said she will introduce a bill today that would block HUD from going through with the rule change – and called for Carson's resignation.
The proposal came one day after HUD Secretary Ben Carson told Congress he is 'not currently anticipating' changes to an Equal Access Rule established under the Obama administration that required shelters to house homeless people of all gender identities.
Carson said HUD's 'responsibility is to make sure everybody is treated fairly,' on Tuesday during a House Financial Services hearing.
Representative Jennifer Wexton, a Democrat from Virginia, said she will introduce a bill today that would block HUD from going through with the rule change – and called for Carson's resignation.
'This week, in his testimony before Congress, Secretary Ben Carson lied to me and the American people about his plans to allow discrimination against transgender Americans seeking access to life-saving shelter,' she said in a statement.
Carson said Tuesday before Congress that the current protections were unnecessary because Equal Access Rules introduced in 2012 and 2016 'adequately provide for fairness for all communities.'
The agency removed training materials from its website in 2017 that were designed prevent discrimination against LGBTQ people in homeless shelters.
