ABOVE: Eleanor Andersen Maloney. Photo courtesy ACLU of Montana.
A transgender woman in Montana was awarded compensation after she was denied gender-affirming healthcare under a county health benefits plan in what LGBTQ advocates are hailing as a “win for transgender rights” in the state.
The Montana Department of Labor and Industry Office of Administrative Hearings awarded Eleanor Andersen Maloney, a former prosecutor in the Yellowstone County attorney’s office, over $66,000 in damages for the discrimination she endured while working for the county – which includes Billings, Montana’s largest city.
The decision comes after a 2020 ruling from an administrative law judge at the Montana Human Rights Bureau that found Yellowstone County’s ban on gender-affirming care constitutes unlawful sex discrimination, violating the Montana Human Rights Act.
That ruling came after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark Bostock v. Clayton County, extending Civil Rights Act protections to LGBTQ+ people in employment. Since, President Joe Biden has expanded the ruling to include other areas, like housing, education and health care.
The compensation also comes at a time when states across the country are issuing guidance confirming that excluding gender-affirming care from health benefits plans is discriminatory. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Montana, 21 states, including Montana, and the District of Columbia have established that such exclusions are unlawful.
“I’m grateful that the rights of LGBTQIA+ Montanans are vindicated today,” said Eleanor Andersen Maloney in a press release.
The damages cover lost compensation and earnings because of Maloney’s “constructive discharge” – when a person resigns due to a hostile or intolerable work environment.
“Eleanor’s victory should send a message to policymakers and employers around the country that denying health care to transgender people is costly,” said Malita Picasso, staff attorney with the ACLU LGBTQ & HIV Project, in the release.
According to Picasso, multiple ACLU clients have sued over the denial of gender-affirming care and have received compensation.
“No employee should have to tolerate being denied insurance coverage for their medically necessary health care solely because they are transgender,” she said. “A person shouldn’t be forced to ask a court just to receive medically necessary health care, but this victory reaffirms that when trans people fight back, we win.”
