State Department employees complained this month after members of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s advance team discovered overtly anti-gay flyers when scoping out the site of a Florida event with a conservative Christian group that promotes conversion therapy for LGBTQ individuals.

Pompeo’s decision to address the Florida Family Policy Council was initially flagged by members of his advance team to their supervisors, and other State Department employees also complained after finding the group offers LGBTQ individuals “help leaving the gay lifestyle” on its website, according to two sources familiar with the internal protest.

Lisa Kenna, executive secretary at the State Department, was alerted to the concerns and attempted to mitigate fallout from the event.

Pompeo ultimately addressed the Florida group’s Oct. 3 event virtually. The gathering — which filled a ballroom in Orlando with roughly 700 guests — coincided with an outbreak of COVID-19 at the White House that infected President Donald Trump and some of his closest aides.

The State Department frequently condemns conversion therapy programs abroad in its human rights reports as among “acts of violence, discrimination, and other abuses based on sexual orientation and gender identity.” Conversion therapy is a discredited practice that aims to change the sexual orientation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals.

One source described several aides as “appalled” the event still took place despite the concerns, and that afterward, the secretary highlighted his appearance in his latest “Miles with Mike” message to department employees.

The event was opened by Jannique Stewart of Missouri, a speaker who described her work as training others in opposing abortion and in “countering some of the agenda when it comes to LGBTQ.”

Before joining the Trump administration, first as CIA director and then as secretary of State, Pompeo made his views on LGBTQ rights explicit, opposing same-sex marriage and once alluding to homosexuality as a “perversion.”

The Florida Family Policy Council says on its website the phrase “conversion therapy” is an ideological term used to discredit therapeutic practices, but it also explicitly opposes efforts to restrict conversion therapy.

“Conversion therapy bans disguise themselves as bans on ‘abuse.’ Rather, such bans place unconstitutional limits on freedom of speech because they do not consider the patient’s (or minor patient’s parents) right to pursue avenues of therapy consistent with their beliefs and choices,” the website states.

The group’s website also includes links to multiple religious-based organizations that offer help “Leaving Gay Lifestyle” and a YouTube video titled “If Conversion Therapy Is Bad, Why Is Sex Reassignment Good?”

A spokesperson for the State Department downplayed internal dissension over Pompeo’s appearance at the event, but did not address the group’s views or answer questions on whether the secretary supports conversion therapy.

“The Secretary was asked to speak to this group about the mission of the State Department and he did. The Secretary believes that organizations like Florida Family Policy Council are entitled to hear from him on important national security policy matters,” the spokesperson said.

“The Secretary was not made aware of any concerns with respect to speaking before this group given that other major leaders have addressed this event,” the spokesperson said.

John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family Policy Council, in an emailed statement said there had been nothing on conversion therapy related to the event.

“There were no flyers about anything, let alone conversion therapy at our dinner, either from us or other organizations,” Stemberger said. “We did not talk with the State Department about conversion therapy. We did meet with members of the Diplomatic Security and advance team to do a walk through before the event. The State Department never asked about conversion therapy, and we as an organization, do not [do] any therapy or counseling at all.”

DOMESTIC POLITICAL SPEECHES

Pompeo and his wife have been the subjects of an ongoing internal inquiry from the State Department inspector general looking into whether they used taxpayer dollars and official personnel for personal errands.

The Democratic-led House Foreign Affairs Committee is now also investigating whether Pompeo has used State Department resources to deliver a series of domestic political speeches ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election, including the Oct. 3 Orlando event, a Sept. 23 visit to the Wisconsin State Capitol and a Sept. 20 speech to a Texas church.

“It is concerning that the Secretary is suddenly crisscrossing the country at taxpayers’ expense,” Democratic Reps. Eliot Engel of New York and Joaquin Castro of Texas wrote to the State Department on Oct. 5. “The nexus of speeches about the Secretary’s personal religious beliefs, to a swing-state legislature accompanied by a former senior Republican party official, and at a paid-access event for an anti-abortion advocacy group, to the Secretary’s official duties as America’s lead diplomat is unclear and possibly illegal.”

Pompeo was initially scheduled to address the Orlando event in person, and an invitation to the gala obtained by CNN offered a “personal visit” with Pompeo for those who sponsored a table for $10,000. Access to a VIP reception was also being offered as part of tickets that were sold for $3,000 and $5,000.

The Florida Family Policy Council is a state-based affiliate of the national group, Focus on the Family, which has long opposed same-sex marriage. Pompeo has repeatedly engaged with the national group over the years to promote religious freedom.

The state group is a well-known advocacy organization for social conservative issues in Florida and has hosted several national Republican politicians, such as former Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, and Dr. Ben Carson, before he became Housing secretary. Former Kansas Sen. and Gov. Sam Brownback addressed the group in 2007 ahead of his unsuccessful run for president in 2008, and now is the State Department’s ambassador at-large for international religious freedom.

Stemberger, an Orlando lawyer who is also a registered lobbyist in Tallahassee, is a longtime supporter of Republican politicians, including Trump, and has pushed for legislation like a bill signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that requires minors seeking an abortion to obtain parental consent.

The Florida Family Policy Council’s events, including the annual awards dinner and forums with candidates running for political office, are often important stops for Republican politicians seeking to win influence with conservative Christians, particularly in contested Republican primaries.

Stemberger has also been at odds with some Florida Republicans, including Rep. Matt Gaetz, over issues like legalizing medical marijuana.

ANGER AMONG LGBTQ

Progressive groups that fight for gay rights said it was an inappropriate venue for a speech from a secretary of State.

“The Florida Family Policy Council is an anti-LGBTQ extremist group that has sought to undermine and attack our community’s most vulnerable at every opportunity,” Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said. “The highest levels of the State Department clearly knew about FFPC’s extremism and yet, even over the objections of staff, chose to embrace it anyway.”

Tom Witt, the executive director of Equality Kansas, the leading LGBTQ rights organization in Pompeo’s home state, criticized Pompeo’s decision to address a group that promotes conversion therapy.

“I’m stunned that our secretary of state would be spending his time going to local organizations whose actions drive kids to suicide, to drop out of school, to otherwise dangerous behaviors because the adults around them are trying to force them to change their sexual orientation or gender identity, which is not something that can be done,” Witt said, noting the State Department’s advocacy for LGBTQ rights abroad.

Witt lives in Wichita, the largest city in Pompeo’s former congressional district.

During his four successful runs for Congress, Pompeo opposed several key LGBTQ rights measures, including the legalization of same-sex marriage and the 2010 repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy to allow openly gay individuals to serve in the military.

“He’s never supported equality for LGBT Americans, even the ones who are fighting for our country,” Witt said.

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Two transgender women are suing Florida government agencies for being denied gender-affirming health care under the state employee health plan’s exclusion for “gender reassignment or modification services or supplies.”

It’s the latest legal challenge to state health plans that deny coverage for gender-affirming procedures.

The Florida lawsuit, filed Monday, argues that the state’s exclusion of gender-affirming care violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause. The plaintiffs, Jami Claire and Kathryn Lane, are state workers who were denied treatment for gender dysphoria. Claire is a scientist who has worked at the University of Florida for over three decades, and Lane is an attorney in the public defender’s office in Tallahassee.

“This was an intentional decision made by the [Florida] Department of Management Services to exclude this type of care, and we know that because there is already an exclusion for non-medically necessary care,” Simone Chriss, attorney at Southern Legal Counsel, told Rewire.News. “If what our plaintiffs were seeking was not medically necessary, it would just be denied for that reason, but it wasn’t. It was denied under the exclusion for gender-affirming care, which means that they recognize it is medically necessary but they choose not to cover it.”

The ACLU of Florida, Southern Legal Counsel, and pro bono attorney Eric Lindstrom filed the lawsuit against the Florida Department of Management Services, the Public Defender of the Second Judicial Circuit of Florida, and the University of Florida.

Claire said Florida’s exclusion of gender-affirming care has affected her financially and emotionally. She has had to pay out of pocket for many of the procedures she needs.

“When I had tried to access the medical care, the exclusion was there and I couldn’t access it and I had three suicide attempts,” she said. “Life wasn’t worth living at that point.”

Claire added, “I’ve spent thousands of dollars already and if this exclusion is not overturned and I get to the point where I retire, I will have to use approximately a third of my retirement money to pay for bottom surgery.”

Hormone replacement therapy, electrolysis, augmentation mammoplasty, orchiectomy, and facial feminization surgery were some of the procedures denied by the plaintiffs’ state plans due to the exclusion of gender-affirming care.

Transgender people face numerous barriers to health care access, including discrimination by health-care providers and economic barriers to accessing affordable care. According to the 2015 U.S. Trans Survey from the National Center for Transgender Equality, one-third of respondents who had seen a health-care provider in the past year had at least one negative experience related to being transgender. One in four respondents said they had a problem with their insurance in the past year related to being transgender, such as being denied gender-affirming care. Black, Native American, Latinx, and multiracial trans people were more likely to be uninsured than white trans people, according to the survey.

Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have policies that prohibit health-care discrimination based on gender identity, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Stateline. Twenty-one states have no policy for health-care coverage for trans people.

Billy Huff, a transgender man who worked at the University of Florida as the director of LGBTQ Affairs, said he was surprised when he found out about the state’s exclusion. He had only researched Aetna to find out if he had coverage.

“I was heartbroken,” he said. “I was at that point literally marking days off on my calendar until my surgery date and already had my consultation and paid for my down payment on the surgery out-of-pocket.”

There have been other lawsuits against exceptions for gender-affirming care in state plans. In 2018, Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit against the state of Alaska on behalf of Jennifer Fletcher, a state legislative librarian, because the state prohibited coverage for her transition-related care. The LGBTQ rights-focused organization, which does litigation and public policy work, said the denial of care violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The case is still open.

Lambda Legal and the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF) filed a lawsuit in 2019 on behalf of current and former employees of the state of North Carolina who were denied transition-related care under the state employee health plan. In the complaint, Lambda Legal and TLDEF argue this violates the equal protection clause, the nondiscrimination clause of Affordable Care Act, and Title IX, since the defendants include state colleges and universities.

Lambda Legal attorney Taylor Brown told Rewire.News that defense of state plan exclusions vary from arguing that the procedures aren’t medically necessary and qualify as “cosmetic” to claiming that refusing to cover gender dysphoria is not discriminatory.

“We’re doing the research about these exclusions and looking into state plans and looking into public record requests on when these decisions were made and debated, and they often rely on outdated science or just pure speculation and misinformation,” Brown said.

“Every major medical association in the United States recognizes the medical necessity of transition-related care for improving the physical and mental health of transgender people and has called for health insurance coverage for treatment of gender dysphoria,” according to the American Medical Association. The American Medical Association also cites studies showing that health coverage that includes gender-affirming care is cost-effective compared to the costs associated with untreated gender dysphoria.

Brown said the claim that refusing treatment for gender dysphoria isn’t sex discrimination doesn’t hold legal water.

“We argue that it’s sex discrimination because these procedures we call transition-related health care—they’re often procedures available to cisgender people. So they’ll say that this is not sex discrimination. It’s condition discrimination. We’re not treating gender dysphoria. But we understand that the only people who have gender dysphoria are transgender people,” she said.

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A Florida public defender and a University of Florida researcher claim their state employee health insurance plans illegally discriminate against them by denying coverage for gender reassignment surgery.

The federal lawsuit filed Monday in the Northern District of Florida claims the health plan violates the Civil Rights Act and equal protection clause by explicitly excluding coverage for “gender reassignment or modification services or supplies.”

Attorneys with Southern Legal Counsel, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and pro bono attorney Eric Lindstrom combined on the filing against the state Department of Management Services, Leon Circuit Public Defender Andy Thomas and UF trustees.

“This is not about special treatment; this is about equal treatment,” said lead counsel Simone Chriss of Southern Legal Counsel in Gainesville. “Transgender state employees are singled out and explicitly denied coverage for one reason: They are transgender. That is discrimination, and it cannot stand.”

Two transgender women, Assistant Public Defender Kathryn Lane and Jami Claire, a senior scientist at UF’s veterinary medical school, are suing the state agencies.

The state sought health insurance plans with a gender reassignment exclusion, and coverage is restricted by the four approved insurance providers, the complaint said.

Claire, a Navy veteran, sought authorization for surgery as part of her transition in December 2018, was denied and appealed. She filed a sex discrimination complaint last June with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and received a notice of right to sue Oct. 21.

“While I have had access to some gender-affirming care at the VA, many transgender state employees and employee dependents have no access to this coverage whatsoever,” Claire said in a statement.

Lane was denied coverage for gender-affirming surgery a year ago, appealed and was denied on the basis of the state’s exclusion as well as a notation about cosmetic surgery. She also filed an EEOC complaint and received a notice of right to sue.

The complaint maintains surgery is medical necessary for both under the World Professional Association for Transgender Health standards of care.

The American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association recognize gender-affirming care is medically necessary, and it is covered by most Fortune 500 companies and Medicaid plans in more than 20 states, an ACLU statement said.

The lawsuit assigned to U.S. District Chief Judge Mark Walker seeks an injunction to cease enforcement of the exclusion and bar the exclusion in future state insurance contracts.

“If Florida won’t voluntarily join the right side of history, we will gladly facilitate that journey,” Chriss  said.

Attorney Daniel Tilley of the ACLU Foundation of Florida in Miami is co-counsel along with Lindstrom of Egan, Lev, Lindstrom & Siwica in Gainesville.

The state attorney general’s office, which represents state agencies in litigation, had no immediate response to an email seeking comment on the lawsuit.

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