LGBTQ supporters rally outside the US Supreme Court, Washington, October 8, 2019 (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

The Trump Administration has removed health protections for transgender patients.

The Administration announced Friday that it is eliminating a regulation prohibiting discrimination, established by President Barack Obama in 2016.

The step comes during Pride Month and on the four-year anniversary of the mass killing of 49 people in a LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

The Obamacare provision, the Health Care Rights Law, “prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability in certain health programs and activities”. The 2016 rule interpreted sex discrimination to include discrimination on the basis of gender identity.

The Department of Health and Human Services said Friday that it is “returning to the government’s interpretation of sex discrimination according to the plain meaning of the word ‘sex’ as male or female and as determined by biology”.

The Human Rights Campaign said it will pursue legal action. The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Center for Transgender Equality condemned the “heartless” step and warned that the Administration is “encouraging discrimination” and threatening lives.

Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, NCTE’s deputy executive director, summarized:

This rule sends a message that medical providers can turn people away from a COVID-19 test or treatment simply because of who they are. We should be making it easier to get health care in a time of need, not harder. This is heartless.

Roger Severino, the director of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights, claimed, “HHS respects the dignity of every human being.”