Biden Administration Restores Rights for Transgender Patients

Officials invited people subject to health care discrimination to file complaints. But formal rule-making will be needed before a Trump-era policy can be fully reversed.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced on Monday that health care providers cannot discriminate against gay and transgender individuals, the latest step in President Biden’s efforts to restore civil rights protections for L.G.B.T.Q. people that were eliminated by his predecessor. Under the new policy, the Department of Health and Human Services will once again prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity by health care organizations that receive federal funding. The move will begin to reverse a policy adopted by the department under President Donald J. Trump that said anti-discrimination provisions of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 did not apply to transgender people. That change had been hailed by social conservatives and harshly criticized by gay rights supporters.