GA jury awards transgender deputy $60k in discrimination lawsuit against Houston County

A Middle Georgia jury awarded a transgender Houston County sheriff’s investigator $60,000 after she sued the county for denying her health coverage for gender-confirmation surgery.

Sgt. Anna Lange filed a civil suit against Houston County and Sheriff Cullen Talton in the U.S. District Court in Macon in 2019, asking for the county to pay for out-of-pocket medical expenses she incurred after Houston County excluded gender-confirmation surgery from its health insurance plan, as well as attorneys’ fees and damages.

The trial began Monday, and the jury had ruled in Lange’s favor by Tuesday afternoon.

“This is yet one more example of an employer violating the law by discriminating against transgender people, and the courts holding them to account for it,” said attorney David Brown, the legal director of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund who worked as part of Lange’s legal team. “And so I think it’s yet one more very loud and clear message to other people who seek to discriminate against transgender folks that it won’t be tolerated.”

In June, U.S. District Court Judge Marc Treadwell ruled that Houston County’s refusal to cover Lange’s treatments violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and found it undisputed that Lange’s surgery was medically necessary.

Treadwell ordered a civil trial so a jury could determine whether Houston County intentionally discriminated against Lange and owed her damages.

Lange, according to the lawsuit, “wore typical men’s clothing at work” and went by her male birth name up until early 2017, when she began her gender transition. She began working at the sheriff’s office in 2006.

“This required her to inform her employer that she would begin wearing typical women’s clothing, using her female name, Anna ... and otherwise being openly female at work,” the lawsuit states, adding that “she has found being able to live and work as female — openly and with the acceptance of her colleagues — to be a blessing, and she has continued to perform her work successfully.”

In 2019, Lange asked county commissioners to include treatment for gender dysphoria to the county’s insurance coverage. The commissioners denied the request.

Brown said Houston County spent almost $1 million defending against the civil suit.