U-M Lecture Highlights Ongoing Fight for Transgender Healthcare Rights
ANN ARBOR, MI – A lecture at the University of Michigan this week underscored the ongoing complexities and uneven implementation of civil rights protections for transgender individuals within the healthcare system, even with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in place.
Mara Kirkland, a speaker at the event hosted by the STS program, explained the importance of ensuring trans patients are “properly greeted, properly seen, properly treated.” Kirkland noted she recognized the challenges ahead when the ACA began addressing these issues.
Despite recent challenges to healthcare access for transgender people, including restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors under the Trump administration, Kirkland emphasized that core protections within the ACA remain legally intact. “The Affordable Care Act hasn’t been repealed,” she stated, acknowledging judicial interpretations can shift the landscape.
Kirkland’s talk focused on the practicalities of implementing civil rights within hospitals, detailing a requirement established during the Obama administration to document patients’ sexual orientation and gender identity in electronic medical records. This data, she explained, aims to ensure the medical system “fully capture[s] sex, sexual orientation and gender identity, to do civil rights justice to a patient.”
Attendees raised concerns about the varying levels of commitment among healthcare institutions. Kirkland observed that larger hospitals are more likely to form dedicated teams to develop non-discrimination policies, while others may underestimate the need or assume existing compliance.
Rackham student Amina Abdu, who attended the lecture, expressed concern about the potential for distortion of the ACA, stating the adaptability in policy “leaves a lot up to actors who are not always in the best position to actually protect our civil rights.” LSA junior Maggie Christoffersen added that the talk highlighted the inconsistent application of civil rights in healthcare, noting that rights like abortion access and transgender care are often viewed ”subjectively.”
