The Visa board of directors has asked shareholders to oppose a policy advocating the company address an apparent lack of health insurance coverage for detransitioners harmed by sex change interventions, such as hormone therapy and surgeries.
The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) is bringing forward a proposal titled “Gender-Based Compensation Gaps and Associated Risks,” referred to as Proposal 4, at Visa’s annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday. The proposal suggests Visa may be at risk of litigation if it fails to provide insurance coverage for those seeking to pause or reverse the impact of cosmetic medical procedures aimed at changing their bodies to look like the opposite sex.
The proposal notes that while Visa offers insurance plans that explicitly pay for the “medical, chemical, and/or surgical treatments to aid their ‘transition’ to their non-biological sex,” there is no distinct coverage for detransitioners rehabilitating from complications caused by these procedures.
“Visa Inc. (the Company) provides benefits to employees and their child dependents who suffer gender dysphoria/confusion, and who seek medical, chemical, and/or surgical treatments to aid their ‘transition’ to their non-biological sex,” the proposal states. “The Company appears to offer no insurance coverage for detransitioners in its employee benefits.”
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The Visa board of directors are opposing the policy and have urged shareholders to vote “no” in a proxy statement, expressing that the company already provides insurance benefits for all employees.
“The Board believes that the report requested by this shareholder proposal is not necessary and not in the best interest of our shareholders, as the Company maintains initiatives, compensation, and benefits it believes are appropriate to support its global workforce,” says the proxy statement. “Accordingly, the Board of Directors recommends that you vote against this proposal.”
A spokesperson for Visa referred the DFNF to the proxy statement when asked for comment.
The NLPC is also asking Visa to create a report for shareholders that describes the “benefits and health program gaps” relating to gender dysphoria and detransitioning care.
Some of the harms of medical sex change interventions are listed in the NLPC proposal.
“Victims report that ‘transition’ therapies and surgeries are harmful. Examples include various long-lasting consequences like chronic pain, sexual dysfunction, unwanted hair loss or hair gain, menstrual irregularities, urinary problems, and other complications,” states the proposal.
“In such instances, patients who desire to ‘detransition’ cannot find medical or insurance coverage. Many of these sufferers litigate against those who misled or harmed them.”
Detransitioner Claire Abernathy, 20, is slated to share her personal story in support of Proposal 4 at the Visa shareholder meeting. Abernathy struggled with gender dysphoria as a preteen, and by age 14 was put on testosterone and underwent a double mastectomy. She has been left with the irreversible harms of medical sex change and has struggled to find help from the medical community while seeking to repair the damage done to her body. Abernathy will urge shareholders to consider the legal risks when companies pay for child sex change through their insurance policies but fail to provide clear coverage for detransitioning.
Paul Chesser, director of the Corporate Integrity Project at NLPC, told the DCNF that corporations funding these damaging sex change procedures on children are culpable in their harms and could face legal actions from detransitioners.
“Lawsuits are being filed by damaged transitioners all over the country against medical providers, and companies that affirmed and funded one-way gender-switching without doing the same in the other direction will be next in the courts,” said Chesser.
Visa recently obtained a perfect 2025 Copromote Equality Index Score from the Humans Rights Campaign (HRC), a LGBTQ+ activist group that champions children receiving cosmetic sex change medical procedures such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and sex change surgeries.
LGBTQ+ people deserve to be seen and thrive at their place of employment. Our Corporate Equality Index has driven workplace equality and inclusion forward for over 20 years.
We remain committed to building inclusive workplace environments. Learn more: https://t.co/CgaZHYM303 pic.twitter.com/iLiuIKhpVo
— HRC (@HRC) September 13, 2024
Since 2002, the HRC has issued their Corporate Equality Index (CEI) survey, which scores corporations based on their commitment adherence to LGBTQ+ ideology; corporations can score up to 100 points if they fulfill all criteria outlined by the HRC. Part of the scoring criteria includes offering insurance coverage for cosmetic sex change medical procedures, including interventions for children.
Visa’s insurance coverage of cosmetic sex change medical procedures, which includes hormone therapy, vaginoplasty, and mastectomy, is based on standards created by the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH), according to the NLPC proposal. WPATH is a controversial organization that recommends that gender dysphoric children receive sterilizing drugs and irreversible surgeries.
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