NECESSARY COVERAGE FOR AUTHENTIC IDENTITY: HOW BOSTOCK MADE TITLE VII THE STRONGEST PROTECTION AGAINST EMPLOYER-SPONSORED HEALTH INSURANCE DENIAL OF GENDER-AFFIRMING MEDICAL CARE.

In June 2020, the United States Supreme Court held that Title VII protection from discrimination on the basis of sex extended to LGBTQ+ employees. The Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia decision dealt with three separate cases where LGBTQ+ employees had been fired from their jobs based on either their sexual orientation or gender identity. While the shared issue in these cases had to do with employee termination, the textualist argument presented by the Court leads many legal scholars to believe that the holding would be applicable to other areas of employment discrimination covered by Title VII such as employer-sponsored healthcare coverage for gender-affirming medical care. Prior to this expansion of Title VII, plaintiffs were able to utilize expanded protections from Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, and state and local protections. However, the Bostock interpretation will likely become increasingly important to LGBTQ+ advocates now that major avenues of protection against LGBTQ+ workplace discrimination have been drastically weakened by recent administrative policies. This Comment will provide an overview of Title VII's historical protection of employees from sex discrimination through employer-based medical coverage, the expansion of this protection to LGBTQ+ individuals through the Bostock decision, and a comparison of this expansion to other avenues jor fighting discrimination in medical coverage for gender affirming medical care. Ultimately, this Comment will propose that the Bostock decision has made Title VII the strongest path currently available for protection against refusal of coverage for gender-affirming medical care by employer-sponsored health insurance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]