An executive order repealing an exemption for gender affirming care in Arizona health-insurance policies will have an immediate impact on Russell Toomey.
The transgender University of Arizona professor sued the state four years ago when he was denied coverage for a long-sought hysterectomy.
State insurance plans already require payments for “medically necessary care” for state and university employees, as well as retirees. But until Gov. Katie Hobbs’ Tuesday executive order, state policies included a written exclusion for gender reassignment surgery.
Hobbs noted there have been successful challenges in other states to that exclusion. So she ordered it removed "as soon as practicable,'' with notice provided to state and university employees enrolled in the system.
That includes Toomey, a professor of family studies and human development at the University of Arizona who conducts research on how sexual and gender minority youth thrive despite barriers and challenges they encounter.
The executive order now will end the lawsuit.
In an interview with Capitol Media Services, Toomey said he knew he was "different'' at a very early age.
“I thought I was a boy at that point but was being told by everything and everyone in my environment 'No, suck it up, you're a girl,’” he said.
But it took until he was at least 19, read a book and worked with a counselor that he learned there was a phrase to describe what he was experiencing: gender dysphoria, a sense of mismatch between biological sex and gender identity.
It was shortly after that he began taking hormones and, about a year later, he had chest reduction surgery, all paid for out of his own pocket.
"The need to have a hysterectomy has always been there for as long as I can remember,'' he said. But Toomey said he waited until he got the security of tenure at the University of Arizona to seek coverage for the hysterectomy, first by trying to change the policy and, when that didn't work, by filing suit.
Nor does he believe the fact that his uterus and ovaries are not outwardly visible make the surgery any less necessary.
"It's really hard to explain to somebody that's not transgender,'' Toomey said. But he said it comes down to "knowing that there's a part of your body, whether visible or not, that doesn't belong because it doesn't align with how you understand your experience to be.''
The governor's order will clear the way for other transgender workers to get similar coverage.