Transgender wife cannot be denied health insurance.Mrs. Radtke was born male in Wisconsin; she later moved to Minnesota and had gender-reassignment surgery. She obtained a Minnesota court order changing her name and gender and a Wisconsin order to change her birth certificate to female. She then married Mr. Radtke, who applied for health insurance for her under his union’s health plan. The plan denied coverage. It stated that since Mrs. Radtke was male at birth, “he” could not be a valid spouse under the plan and could not be validly married because the plan or state does not recognize same-sex marriages. The Radtkes sued. The court ordered the plan to insure Mrs. Radtke. Minnesota permits a person to legally have gender-reassignment surgery and legally change his or her gender. Once a court grants a legal gender change, the person is entitled to all full rights of that gender, including marriage and all related insurance coverage. Mrs. Radtke’s rights were to be determined at the time of marriage, not at the time of birth. An insurance company may not impose its own interpretation of state law in order to deny coverage.Radtke v. Drivers & Helpers Union Local #638 Health Welfare Fund(D. Minn., 2012).
Minnesota enacts affirmative-action preference for veterans in all hiring.
Minnesota has passed a law allowing all employers, public and private, to give veterans preference in hiring and promotion over all other applicants. Employers may also give preference to the spouses of veterans with disabilities. In public-sector employment, the law has doubled the veterans preference points and also allows non-competitive hiring of veterans with disabilities. “Veterans Points” or “Veterans Preferences” are the oldest and most widely used form of affirmative action. Most efforts are in the public sector. Minnesota has now given private employers a legal foundation to extend a preference and not be liable for discrimination charges by other applicants who claim that they were more qualified.
