In The Middle Of The Worst Pandemic Since 1918…

...Trump wants to take away our health insurance!

How cruel can a person be?

Trump Administration Doubles Down on Trans Discrimination

US Congress Should Pass the Equality Act

Human Rights Watch

By Ryan Thoreson

June 25, 2020

The Trump administration is moving ahead with a rule that would write transgender people out of sex discrimination protections in health care. While advocates fight the rule in court, transgender people will continue to face discriminatory treatment and refusals of care.

This comes despite a United States Supreme Court ruling last week that affirmed employment protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, reasoning that gender identity discrimination is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by law.

[…]

The rollback of healthcare protections is the latest in a long string of Trump administration attacks on transgender people.

The administration’s cruel assault on transgender rights shows no signs of letting up. Just after the healthcare regulation was finalized, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development said it would propose a rule permitting single-sex homeless shelters to turn away transgender people.

On the heels of the Supreme Court ruling, the Trump administration is ignoring the court ruling and plunging ahead to strip us of health insurance protection of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) Section 1557. In addition, Trump wants to scrap the whole ACA forcing 20 million people to lose their health insurance.

Opinion: New federal rule will harm transgender health

Houston Chronicle

By Dr. Aliza Norwood 

June 26, 2020

Riah Milton and Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells, both black trans women, were murdered earlier this month. Their deaths appear to be part of an epidemic of hate crimes against transgender people, particularly trans women of color. Yet that same week, against the backdrop of Black Lives Matter protests, a global pandemic and Pride month, the Trump administration issued a rule to further imperil transgender people by stripping them of their right to seek health care without discrimination.

The rule, finalized on June 12 by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights, rewrites part of the Affordable Care Act by interpreting “sex” discrimination to apply only to biological sex, thus allowing health care providers and insurance companies to refuse care or coverage to patients merely because they are transgender. Although the Supreme Court’s recent groundbreaking ruling that employers cannot fire individuals based on sexual orientation or gender identity sets an important precedent, it doesn’t keep the HHS rule from taking effect.

[…]

As the global pandemic has taught us, our nation is only as healthy as its most vulnerable citizens. The HHS rule is medically unsound and will harm individual and public health. We cannot continue to allow the seeds of transphobia that kill so many people to be buried in our medical system.

This is the most cold-hearted administration ever, they are devoid of any empathy.

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Another death by the hands of correctional officers…

17 Rikers Workers to Be Disciplined for Transgender Woman’s Death in Solitary

Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

By Parker E. Quinlan 

June 27, 2020

NEW YORK — The New York City Department of Corrections will discipline 17 officers for their conduct surrounding the death of 27-year-old Layleen Polanco, a transgender Rikers Island inmate being housed in solitary confinement.

The decision comes after the New York City Board of Corrections (BOC) released a scathing 16-page report that documents how both DOC and Correctional Health Services (CHS), which administers medical aid to inmates, ignored signs that Polanco was not medically fit for solitary confinement.

Polanco, who had schizophrenia and frequent epileptic seizures, died in her cell in June 2019. She had been arrested for allegedly attempting to bite a taxi driver and was being held on $500 bail. She was unattended for nearly two hours before staff tried to assist her, according to the report.

Despite it being against DOC policy to house inmates with medical conditions in solitary confinement, the report charges medical staff cleared her to be housed in the unit anyway.

As the Black Lives Matter movement has shown… “law enforcement” agencies need to have their funding cut, this should have never been a legal matter but rather a social work matter, she needed mental healthcare not to be locked up in jail because she couldn't make bond. Attempting to bite a person shouldn’t be a life sentence.