by SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN

A coalition of LGBTQ clinics and organizations are suing to block a Trump administration rule that aims to strip "sex discrimination" protections for transgender people from laws that govern health care. The rule, issued in final form by the Department of Health and Human Services on June 12, is distinct from last week's landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that bars discrimination against LGBTQ people in the workplace.

"Everyone deserves easy access to health care, and health care that is respectful of who we are," said Bamby Salcedo, president and CEO of the TransLatin@ Coalition, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. "This rule will hurt marginalized communities who already experience barriers to care."

The lawsuit was filed Monday morning in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The plaintiffs, represented by Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and Steptoe & Johnson, include Whitman-Walker Clinic and the Los Angeles LGBT Center, along with individual LGBTQ physicians, health care provider associations and LGBTQ organizations, including the TransLatin@ Coalition.

The challenge to the Trump administration's health care rule comes just a few days after it was published in the Federal Register, and a week after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of LGBTQ employees. In a 6-3 decision, the high court found that "sex discrimination" does protect people who are fired or discriminated against at work for being gay or transgender. Read more via NPR

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

The last few days have involved a bit of whiplash for people in the LGBTQ community. Today, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision. It ruled that protections against sex discrimination in employment cover people who are gay or transgender. But last Friday, the Trump administration issued a rule that asserts this - that sex discrimination in health care does not cover the discrimination of gay or transgender people - two branches of government saying pretty much opposite things. Here to help us explain all of this is NPR health policy reporter Selena Simmons-Duffin.

Hey, Selena.

SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.

CHANG: Hi. So maybe a good place to start is just give us a recap of these two things - first, the Supreme Court ruling today and then this health discrimination rule issued last week.

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Right. So the big news today is the Supreme Court decision. There were three cases. In two of them, gay men were fired. And in one, a transgender woman was fired. The law at issue was Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which says you can't discriminate against someone at work because of, quote, "sex." Today, the high court ruled that sex discrimination includes discrimination against someone because of their gender identity or sexual orientation. So those firings do violate federal law, and LGBTQ activists are hailing it as a huge victory.

Now let's time travel back to Friday. I was here on the show talking about a new rule from the Trump administration's Department of Health and Human Services, and that rule stripped back language that explicitly protected LGBTQ people from being discriminated against in health care. So the White House was saying only discrimination on the basis of being male or female in health care was protected, not discrimination for being gay or transgender.

CHANG: OK. Well, how do these two developments over the last few days interact? I mean, what impact might this Supreme Court decision today have on the transgender health rule?

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Well, the - it doesn't have any immediate impact. It's about a different part of federal law - employment discrimination, not discrimination in health care - but it could have implications for the effect the rule might have. And it could make a legal challenge to the rule more likely to succeed if courts start looking at any law that talks about sex discrimination, and they start saying, OK, well, now the Supreme Court tells us we should read that to cover LGBTQ people. Read the full transcript via NPR