A coalition of LGBTQ groups and health care providers are suing the Trump administration over its rollback of health care protections for LGBTQ people, alleging the move conflicts with the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling blocking discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in the workplace.

The complaint was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by attorneys with Steptoe & Johnson and the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and appears to be the first lawsuit lodged over the rule change after it was announced earlier this month.

The new rule—set to go into effect in mid-August—alters the definition of sex discrimination laid out in the Affordable Care Act to exclude transgender people, among other changes. Advocacy groups decried the move, highlighting its announcement during the COVID-19 pandemic and Pride Month.

"The elimination of this definition not only invites health care insurers and providers to discriminate against LGBTQ people seeking health care, but it also introduces substantial confusion among health care providers and insurers regarding their legal obligations and the right of the populations they serve to be free from sex discrimination, particularly in light of the Supreme Court's decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, which held that discrimination based on transgender status or sexual orientation 'necessarily entails discrimination based on sex,'" the lawsuit reads.

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 last week that workplace protections against discrimination on the basis of sex also apply to sexual orientation. The complaint states the new rule, released ahead of the justices's ruling, noted that "a holding by the U.S. Supreme Court on the meaning of 'on the basis of sex' under Title VII will likely have ramifications for the definition of 'on the basis of sex' under Title IX.'"  

"However, undeterred from their goal to foster discrimination against LGBTQ people, HHS published the Revised Rule, without any changes, four days after the Supreme Court's decision in Bostock," the court filing reads.

The lawsuit alleges the rule change violates the Administrative Procedure Act, as well as due process and equal protections under the Fifth Amendment and the First Amendment's Establishment clause and free speech protections.

"The Revised Rule, if allowed to go into effect, will undermine the progress achieved so far in eradicating health care discrimination against LGBTQ people in a broad array of health care programs and entities by inviting health care insurers and providers once again to discriminate against them, while also discouraging LGBTQ people from seeking health care in the first instance," the complaint reads.

Other lawsuits over the rule change are expected to land in federal court. The ACLU said it will go to court over the move, and the Human Rights Campaign also said it would team up with firm Baker Hostetler to make a similar challenge.

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