Chicagoan sues employer and union for being denied transgender breast removal surgery
Breccan F. Thies
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A biological female who identifies as a man in Chicago filed a federal lawsuit against a former employer and union over a health plan that denied coverage for transgender breast removal surgery.
Morgan Mesi filed suit against Breakthru Beverage Illinois after being denied coverage for a bilateral double mastectomy and hormone therapy.
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A profile in Qwear Media, an advertising firm that features LGBT storylines, described Mesi as a “trans, nonbinary, and genderqueer model seeking to bring visibility to the trans community.”
Along with the liquor distribution company, Mesi named Local 3 Liquor and Allied Workers Union in the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Mesi started seeking mental health consultations about gender dysphoria in November 2016 and started taking hormones in 2017 — the same year Mesi started looking into the double mastectomy, which some call a “top surgery.”
“This lawsuit is about my right to control my body free from discrimination,” Mesi said at a news conference, calling the procedures and drugs “medically necessary.”
By 2018, Mesi received a plan exclusion notice, in which the union directed the health insurance company to deny coverage for the surgery, labeling it as cosmetic. After a failed appeal, the union clarified that it only covers double mastectomies for cancer, a family history of cancer, or similar illnesses.
Coverage for gender transition hormones was also denied, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit also includes doctors’ notes saying the procedures were medically necessary for Mesi and an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission finding that Breakthru Beverage likely had acted illegally. Mesi accuses the company of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Illinois statutes.
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In 2020, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County that Title VII includes people claiming transgender identity in its definition of sex discrimination. After that case, a federal lawsuit out of Georgia ruled that denying gender transition procedures is discriminatory.
A 2022 decision from the Illinois Human Rights Commission found that rejecting coverage of such medical interventions in employee insurance plans violates the state’s civil rights laws.