City Now Offering Full Gender Affirmation Benefits To Employees

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Pittsburgh is now offering full gender affirmation benefits to all city employees.

The city will cover gender reassignment surgical procedures, as well as mental health counseling and hormone therapy.

Mayor Bill Peduto made the announcement on the steps of the City-County Building downtown on Thursday alongside officials from the Human Rights Campaign.

"These benefits will be available to all union and non-union employees and their dependents who are enrolled in our health plans. The city Personnel Department has been working on this for years," said Peduto.

The organization gave the city a 100 percent score in its rating system on LGBTQ inclusion.

"Today represents the work of people going back decades, courageous people who were willing to stand up in the face of great adversity, the work of people who had nobody behind them at the time, no elected official with courage to be able to stand with them, nobody supporting them, but they kept fighting for what was right for people," said Peduto. "We stand here today because of that work."