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Employee Sues University Of Georgia Because It Wouldn’t Pay For Her Gender Transition Surgery

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Grace Carr Reporter
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A woman is suing the University of Georgia along with its health care providers and administrators, alleging that the school discriminated against her as a transgender employee.

First reported by AJC Wednesday, the lawsuit comes after Skyler Jay — denoted as Skyler Musgrove in her legal complaint — alleged that the university refused to discuss an appeal after her insurance company wouldn’t reimburse her for a surgery she got in May 2017 to facilitate her transition to becoming a man.

Jay’s health insurance provider, Blue Cross Blue Shield, refused to reimburse her for the operation because the plan is self-insured and has “no flexibility,” according to AJC. Jay filed her lawsuit in the U.S. District Court’s Middle District in June. (RELATED: The Number Of Sex-Change Surgeries Is Going Up, And One Doctor Is Calling It A ‘Health Emergency’)

“The fact that transgender employees are not able to access medically necessary care while non-transgender employees have their medically necessary care covered evidences a disparate impact on a protected class,” Jay’s attorneys wrote in the legal complaint.

Jay attended the university as a female student starting in 2009 and started working as a catering and banquets manager there in 2013.

Jay stars on Netflix’s reality show, “Queer Eye.” She also started a gofundme page to help pay for her surgery and has raised $972 thus far.

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