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Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
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Arizona governor Katie Hobbs issued executive orders on Tuesday to guarantee transgender state employees access to gender-transition surgery to prohibit the use of state funding to support or promote so-called “conversion therapy.”
Hobbs’s order on gender-transition surgery changes existing policy that prohibited the state’s health plan from covering the surgeries.
The new policy comes after University of Arizona professor Russell Toomey, a biological woman who identifies as a man, sued the state after being denied coverage for a hysterectomy. The lawsuit is still working its way through the courts but has cost Arizona more than $1 million in legal fees. In response to the new order, ACLU attorneys representing Toomey said they will file a motion to settle the case.