Laverne Cox: SCOTUS Just Made Trump Administration LGBTQ Rulings ‘Moot’

Monday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” actress and transgender activist Laverne Cox said the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex discrimination, applies to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity will render the Trump administration’s more strict interruption of the law “moot.”

Friday the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ruled ObamaCare’s nondiscrimination protections for sex and gender identity would be scrapped based on “the plain meaning of the word ‘sex’ as male or female and as determined by biology.”

Cox said, “I was shocked. Quite frankly, it’s still shocking. I had the great honor of being present at the Supreme Court during oral arguments on October 8th of last year. And as I sat there, I heard Gorsuch’s questions, and I said, I feel he might be on our side, but I was like, that can’t really be the case. Turns out, he was. And when I spoke with the ACLU about the approach of, this approach to their argument, it was the approach that, indeed, won the day. Gorsuch is a textualist, and it’s really shocking and also shocking that it is a 6-3 decision.”

Mitchell said, “Also, though, the president rolled back Obama-era transgender patient protections in Obamacare on the night of the Pulse nightclub shooting’s we don’t know yet. I haven’t to read the decision. Does this cover this as well? One presumes it would?”

Cox said, “My understanding, according to my friend who works at the ACLU, that this decision from the Supreme Court today makes that rule moot. In terms of the discrimination that the department of Housing and Human Services was trying to implement around transgender folks in health care, you because now we have federal law explicitly saying sex discrimination actually includes sexual orientation and gender identity. And so if it applies in employment, it also should apply in health care and other aspects. That’s my understanding of the law, according to my friend Chase, sorry Chase, talk to Chase if I’m wrong— that this is decision is moot from the Department of Health and Human Services. Which is insanely gorgeous.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

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