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The Biden administration cannot force a group of Catholic healthcare providers and professionals to perform gender transition surgeries under an Obama-era regulation barring sex discrimination in healthcare, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday. (Wiessner, 12/9)

The case is the latest in a series of legal battles determining whether gender-affirming care is protected under the Affordable Care Act's nondiscrimination regulations. Protections based on gender identity and sexual orientation were initially enshrined into law during President Barack Obama's administration but were scrapped during Donald Trump's presidency. (Hartnett, 12/9)

A coalition of mental health providers who treat transgender people in Connecticut has complained for months that the state Department of Social Services has imposed what they call unnecessary and overly restrictive requirements on patients seeking gender-affirming surgery. (Farrish, 12/9)

Since far-right social media activists began attacking Boston Children’s Hospital over the summer for providing care for transgender children, the hospital has received repeated bomb threats. Doctors across the country who do similar work have been harassed. The Justice Department charged a Texas man this month with threatening a Boston doctor; it also recently charged at least two others with threatening anti-gay or anti-transgender attacks. Twelve times as many anti-L.G.B.T.Q. incidents have been documented this year as in 2020, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, which tracks political violence. (Astor, 12/10)