PORTLAND, Maine — The city of Portland announced Wednesday that the City Council will vote on a resolution during Monday’s council meeting to remove the exclusion for transgender health care services from its employee health plan.
The resolution is sponsored by Mayor Ethan Strimling and City Manager Jon Jennings and co-sponsored by the entire City Council.
City staff has already begun work to implement the policy change, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2017.
“It is the public policy of the city to prohibit discrimination against transgender people,” said Strimling. “Through this resolution, we are making it clear that we support health care services for transgender people in order to protect the health, safety and the quality of life for all residents in the city.”
By implementing this change, Portland will join more than 60 cities across the country that have also removed exclusions for transgender health coverage for their employees, including San Diego, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Boston, Cambridge, Worcester, Providence and Burlington.