MARYSVILLE, Calif. (KCRA) – A California father said his daughter is being discriminated against because his company’s health care plan doesn’t offer transgender benefits and he has the backing of the ACLU.
To Brian Condrey, his daughter Stella deserves the same treatment as anyone else. “We send memes back and forth to each other,” he told KCRA. “She’s just like anyone else’s daughter.”
Stella, now a sophomore in college, came out in 2017 as transgender. Condrey explained, “We began immediately looking into how do we get her the best care possible.”
Condrey started looking through his health care plan provided through his job at Yuba College. But one paragraph shocked him. Transgender benefits are not covered by his health insurance policy.
“It’s unfair,” Condrey said. “It’s absolutely discriminatory. And quite frankly, in the 21st century, we have a really hard time believing that a California public school would still have something like this.”
Yuba College is part of a group called the Tri-County Schools Insurance Group, or “TCSIG” for short. It works to get the best rates for members.
Yuba College has a representative that sits on the TSCIG board of directors.
Brian Condrey said he’s tried to talk with them about his health insurance plan. “I thought, honestly, I could do this on my own. And I was just being ignored. I was the loudest voice in the room, but they just ignored me.”
On Wednesday, the ACLU sent a letter to Yuba College and TCSIG demanding benefits for transgender people be included in the plan. “Exclusions of this nature single out transgender people for unequal treatment, and therefore constitute unlawful discrimination under both state and federal law,” the ACLU stated.
Condry explained, “All we’re asking them to do is treat my child like any other dependent it treated in the district.”
On Friday, the Tri County Schools Insurance Group will hold a vote to decide whether to allow transgender benefits as part of the health care plan.
Condrey said regardless of the decision he’ll keep fighting for his daughter and other families going through the same thing. “That’s what you want to do as a parent, you want to protect them. and it’s demoralizing when you can’t,” he said.
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