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# Biden restores LGBTQ+ health protections
- URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/biden-restores-lgbtq-health-protections/
- Published: 2021-05-11T15:45:19.000Z
- Updated: 2021-05-11T15:45:19.000Z
- Description: Biden has reversed a Trump-era policy which allowed for healthcare professionals to discriminate against LGBTQ+ citizens.
- Author: Rachel Badham
- Tags: Health, News, Politics, Queer Corner, Anti-discrimination laws US, Healthcare, Human Rights Campaign, Joe Biden, LGBTQ, US

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/joe-biden-portrait-mississippi-gt-img-1.jpg)

President **Joe Biden** has reversed a Trump-era policy which allowed for healthcare professionals to discriminate against LGBTQ+ citizens, meaning queer Americans will now have legal protections when seeking healthcare. According to *[The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/biden-transgender-health-care-trump-b1844981.html?ref=scenemag.co.uk),* Trump’s regulations protected people from sex discrimination but defined sex to mean gender assigned at birth. Subsequently, healthcare professionals could legally discriminate against trans and gender-diverse Americans.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/lgbt-healthcare-1-1.jpg)

However, the Biden administration is now restoring protections for LGBTQ+ citizens after such regulations were first implemented by Obama. **Xavier Becerra**, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said in a statement: *“Fear of discrimination can lead individuals to forgo care, which can have serious negative health consequences…Everyone – including LGBTQ+ people – should be able to access health care, free from discrimination or interference, period.”*

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/healthcare-human-rights-600-400.jpg)

As a result of the new regulations, the HHS Office for Civil Rights will once again begin investigating complaints of sex discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identity. In addition to the anti-discrimination healthcare policies, Biden signed an [executive order ](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/biden-signs-order-protecting-lgbtq-people-from-discrimination/)earlier this year to protect all LGBTQ+ people from discrimination. The **Human Rights Campaign** referred to it as *“the most substantive, wide-ranging executive order concerning sexual orientation and gender identity ever issued by a United States president.”*