US: New Maryland governor axes LGBT anti-discrimination regulations
Maryland’s new Republican governor has axed anti-discrimination provisions, just one day into his term in office.
Larry Hogan – who was sworn in last week as the state’s governor – has kicked off his term by withdrawing a number of regulations implemented by his predecessor.
One of the regulations withdrawn, enacted by former Democratic governor Martin O’Malley, prevented discrimination against LGBT people in Medicaid provisions.
Governor Hogan told the Baltimore Sun: “We just basically pulled all the regulations that were supposed to be published on Friday.
“We didn’t like the fact that [O’Malley] was trying to push these things through at the last minute.
“We’re going to make sure our new team throughout government reviews every one of these regulations to make sure which direction we should head.”
However Carrie Evans of Equality Maryland condemned the decision to scrap the healthcare regulation.
She said: “Equality Maryland is disappointed in the Governor’s actions.
“To withdraw a regulation that prohibits discrimination in the provision of essential medical services, which also has no fiscal impact, seems contrary to the spirit of inclusiveness touted in his inauguration speech yesterday.
“We know that trans people in Maryland face discrimination when accessing health care and we should be working to ensure this doesn’t happen instead of overtly condoning it.”
