HHS Proposed Rules Will Provide “Incredible Protections For Trans and Gender Nonconforming people”— and More Needs To Be Done

WASHINGTON, DC, September 3, 2015—The National LGBTQ Task Force is welcoming the publication of proposed rules from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that provide strengthened protections for trans and gender nonconforming people — and the Task force is calling on HHS to explicitly add sexual orientation to the new rules.

“We are pleased that the proposed rules include incredible protections for trans and gender nonconforming people. We are also pleased that the regulations did not include harmful religious exemptions. We had hoped that HHS would have included explicit protections on the basis of sexual orientation — thus mirroring EEOC’s interpretation of sexual orientation AND gender identity as protected under sex discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. We will be submitting written comments in the next several weeks to specify the changes we’d like to see reflected in the final rules,” said Stacey Long Simmons, Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs.

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