Pending US Supreme Court ruling stalls transgender bias suit

A federal judge put a transgender discrimination suit against a hospital owned by Dignity Health of San Francisco on hold Tuesday while the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether a Virginia school district can exclude a transgender youth from a restroom that corresponds with his gender identity.

The suit by Josef Robinson, a nurse at Dignity’s Chandler Regional Medical Center in Arizona, challenges the hospital’s refusal to provide insurance coverage for his hormonal treatment and other medical care and the sex-reassignment surgery his doctors have recommended.

[...] in October, the Supreme Court granted review of the Virginia case, which could determine nationwide whether transgender students and employees are covered by existing civil rights laws.

The judge also noted that Obama administration regulations requiring equal insurance treatment for transgender employees take effect Jan. 1 and that Dignity Health has said its Chandler hospital would comply.