The Biden administration on Tuesday proposed expanding nondiscrimination protections related to sexual orientation and gender identity to some federal grant programs providing human services.
While most of the Department of Health and Human Services’s purview covers health care, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the National Institutes of Health, those health programs and services, said Melanie Fontes Rainer, the director of HHS’ Office of Civil Rights, are covered under a provision of the 2010 health law preventing discrimination based on factors like sex, race and national origin.
The new rule would focus on human services, such as some of the HHS programs covered by the Administration for Children and Families including Head Start and services provided to homeless individuals, refugees and those experiencing substance use or mental health disorders. The rule would expand sex-based discrimination protections on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation to those programs.
