Several advocacy groups on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration over its decision to remove transgender protections from the Affordable Care Act.

Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth; Callen-Lorde Community Health Center; Campaign for Southern Equality; Equality California; Fenway Health and the Transgender Emergency Fund are plaintiffs in the lawsuit the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Transgender Law Center, the National Womens Law Center, the Harvard Law Schools Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation and the private law firm Hogan Lovells filed on their behalf in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on behalf of the LGBTQ organizations. Darren Lazor, a trans man who lives near Cleveland, is also named as a plaintiff.

The Obamaadministration under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act determineddiscrimination based on sex applied to trans people. The U.S. Department ofHealth and Human Services on June 12 announced the Trump administrations planto reverse the rule had been made final.

The U.S.Supreme Court three days later ruled Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964bans employment discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

A pressrelease that announced the lawsuit notes the reversal of the Affordable CareAct policy violates the Administrative Procedures Act by being contraryto law and arbitrary and capricious.

I have experiencedfeeling like a doctor doesnt care if I live or die which is justshameful, said Lazor in the press release. No one should be denied life-saving health care or bediscriminated against the way I have simply because of who they are. I hopethat sharing my story can help others understand that transgender people arewho we are, and we deserve to be treated fairly under the law.

Equality California ExecutiveDirector Rick Chavez Zbur added rippinghealthcare away from millions of Americans is wrong; to do so in the middle ofa global health crisis is just plain evil.

As long as President Trump keeps attacking transgender people like Darren and other LGBTQ+ Equality California members simply because of who they are, well keep fighting the Administration in court, he said.

The Human Rights Campaign and the D.C.-based law firm Baker Hostetler have filed a separate lawsuit against the policys rescission in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on behalf of two trans women of color. Lambda Legal has also challenged the Trump administrations decision in federal court.

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Trump administration sued again over rescission of transgender health care protections - Washington Blade