FAYETTEVILLE -- The University of Arkansas is discriminating against its transgender staff or their transgender dependents by excluding gender dysphoria health care coverage, according to advocates who want the policy reinstated.
"I would like to ask the university to keep its promise to provide me with health care coverage I need," said Teri Wright, a trans woman whose wife works for the university. "I want the university to comply with the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association and provide coverage for gender dysphoria."
At a glance
PRIDE is organizing a viewing of Angels in America, a play examining AIDS and homosexuality in 1980s New York City. The event will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the university’s Global Campus auditorium at 2 E. Center St. in Fayetteville. For more information, contact PRIDE by email at [email protected].
Source: Staff report
Petition
PRIDE is circulating a petition asking the University of Arkansas System board of trustees to reinstate transgender health benefits for system employees. The petition can be found at www.tinyurl.com/uar….
Source: Staff report
Roughly 50 people marched Saturday in support of Wright's cause. The throng filled both sides of Dickson Street, flowing north to the Washington County Courthouse and circled the downtown square before concluding at the Arkansas Union on campus. Several protesters carried homemade signs displaying inclusive messages like "trans lives matter" and "support health care and human rights."
Wright, 46, a U.S. Army veteran who lives in West Fork with her spouse, Katie, a UA System Division of Agriculture employee, said the decision means her struggle for health care coverage continues.
"Once I would get the surgery, I could cut down on my medications by probably half," said Wright, adding the surgery -- which she said costs an estimated $17,500, not including follow-up -- is only one aspect of health treatment she has found difficult because of exclusions in her partner's plan.
Wright said the gender reassignment surgery is medically necessary, not only to cut down on liver-damaging medications but also so she can live her life as she wants to: Swimming, going to yoga, not having worries in a public restroom.
The University of Arkansas System in January suspended gender transition health care coverage for employees that was slated to start this year under the Affordable Care Act.
To comply with rules added to the federal health care law last year, university officials decided to implement coverage for "gender dysphoria" beginning Jan. 1, 2017, according to an email sent to employees.
The term is used by national medical associations for people who experience distress about the sex they were assigned at birth but with which they no longer identify.
But in December, a Texas judge issued a preliminary injunction against the regulation that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity in health care, saying it violates existing law.
Citing that decision, officials wrote in an email to staff that the university "will suspend gender dysphoria coverage pending the final legal outcome of the injunction or further clarification of the ACA coverage guidelines."
The UA System has about 35,900 people on its health plans, said Nate Hinkel, spokesman. The total includes employees and families. Hinkel said he had no estimate on the number of insurance claims made relating to gender dysphoria, defined as feeling emotional and psychological identity opposite of one's biological sex.
Hinkel did not immediately respond Saturday to requests for comment.
Wright said she receives care because of her status as a veteran through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, but must travel to Little Rock for regular visits to an endocrinologist through the VA rather than see a local specialist as she would be able to on a university health plan.
While the VA covers hormone replacement therapy, Katie Wright, a food science project manager, said costs add up for other health expenses relating to her spouse's transition treatments like lab work bills of $2,000 to $3,000 yearly, she said.
Shannon Hart, president of the UA student organization People Respecting Individual Differences and Equality, said the pushback is just starting.
"I'm so thrilled with the turnout, which was largely affirming and positive," Hart said. "This isn't the end. We're going to continue to fight."
Hart said she's working on a letter-writing campaign and plans to lobby the University of Arkansas System board of trustees.
Julia Baker Howry, a UA graduate who now lives in Austin, Texas, was in Fayetteville to visit her daughter. She saw the march in progress and decided to join on a whim.
"It's very disappointing," Howry said of the university's decision to drop transgender benefits. "(The decision) doesn't reflect the values of an academic institution."
Jazmynne Matthews, a trans female vocalist in Fayetteville known as Lady Jazmynne, put it more bluntly.
"It's time for Arkansas to catch the (expletive) up with the rest of the world," Matthews said. "Who we are doesn't affect you in any harmful way, so give me what divine earth has given me all along and that's the right to live, my right to exist, my right to be as I am and as we all are."
NW News on 03/05/2017