A sheriff’s deputy returned to court Monday for a civil trial seeking monetary damages from the Georgia county that employs her after a federal judge ruled her bosses illegally denied the deputy health coverage for gender-confirmation surgery.
Sgt. Anna Lange wants a jury to award her damages for emotional distress, attorney fees and repayment of more than $10,000 in out-of-pocket medical costs she incurred because Houston County excluded surgery for the transgender woman from its health insurance plan.
U.S. District Court Judge Marc Treadwell ruled in June that the county’s refusal to cover Lange’s prescribed gender-confirmation treatments amounted to illegal sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Treadwell’s order cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision finding that a Michigan funeral home couldn’t fire an employee for being transgender. He also found it undisputed that Lange’s surgery was “medically necessary.”
However, the judge deemed there was insufficient evidence to decide as a matter of law whether the county intentionally discriminated against Lange and therefore owed her monetary damages. He ordered a civil trial so that a jury could decide the issue.