Transgender deputy suing Georgia county goes to trial

MACON, Ga. (AP) — A sheriff’s deputy is going back to court after a federal judge ruled that a Georgia county illegally denied her gender-confirmation surgery. Trial proceedings were scheduled to begin Monday in U.S. District Court in Macon, where Sgt. Anna Lange is seeking monetary damages from Houston County as well as repayment for more than $10,000 in medical bills the deputy paid out of her own pocket. Lange is a transgender woman who sued Houston County after it refused to pay for her prescribed gender-confirmation surgery beginning in 2018. Judge Marc Treadwell ruled in June that the county had violated Lange’s civil rights. But he ordered a jury trial to decide whether the county must pay damages.