Federal Judge Rules Alaska Must Fund Librarian’s Sex-Change Surgery and Attorney General Kevin Clarkson Has No Comment on any Appeal

A federal judge has sided with an Alaska librarian who is demanding the state subsidize his gender reassignment surgery as a public employee, ruling Friday that federal civil-rights law should be interpreted as mandating the coverage.

Jennifer Fletcher, a man who identifies as a woman, is a state legislative librarian in Juneau. He says he has had to spend thousands of dollars on sex-reassignment treatments because they aren’t covered by the state’s health insurance plan, Alaska Public Media reported.

Represented by the pro-LGBT group Lambda Legal, Fletcher sued the state on the grounds that the exclusion supposedly violates the federal ban on “sex discrimination” in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The state responded that the procedures in question would not have been covered for men or women, but U.S. District Court Judge H. Russel Holland ultimately agreed with Lambda’s argument.

Holland’s decision could be appealed, but the dispute is more likely to be resolved by a case already before the U.S. Supreme Court that consolidates several similar controversies from around the country and hinges on the meaning of the 1964 law. (Read more from “Judge Rules Alaska Must Fund Librarian’s Sex-Change Surgery” HERE)

(Editor’s note: Attorney General Kevin Clarkson has not stated whether the State will appeal this unbelievable decision. He has less than two weeks to do so. If the State does not appeal and begins to provide funding under its healthcare plan for “sex change” operations, even if the Supreme Court eventually rules that Title VII does not mandate such funding, the reversal in State policy may not be undone. And importantly, if the State fails to appeal and request a stay of the judge’s decision, payment will be made to the librarian for the operation. If the governor believes the decision is wrong, he must have his attorney general appeal, notwithstanding any pending Supreme Court cases. Finally, the fact that yet another state is weighing in on the matter may have influence on SCOTUS’s ultimate decision. Sitting on your hands reflects consent.)

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