Alaska

A federal district court today ruled in favor of Lambda Legal client Jennifer Fletcher and ordered that the State of Alaska’s denial of health care coverage to a legislative librarian based on its blanket exclusion of medically necessary transition-related surgical treatment from AlaskaCare, the state employee health care plan, is unlawful sex discrimination that violates federal law.

Lambda Legal this morning filed a federal lawsuit against the State of Alaska on behalf of Jennifer Fletcher, a state legislative librarian who was forced to pay out-of-pocket for medically necessary surgical treatment because the state health insurance plan prohibits such coverage only for transgender state employees.

It’s only Thursday and already so much has happened since Monday, when the Supreme Court announced that it would not take up cases from Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin that struck down state bans on marriage for same-sex couples — making it possible for same-sex couples to begin marrying in those five states.

The Alaska Supreme Court today ruled unanimously that the same-sex partner of a person killed on the job should have access to the protection of Alaska’s workers’ compensation law.