It may seem like the country has become overrun with hate.

But there is still good news from time to time.

The Hawaii House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill which prohibits insurance companies from denying, canceling or limiting insurance coverage based on gender identity.

That's something that's really critical, especially now when you have states around the country moving the other direction, explicitly placing into law the ability to discriminate based on who people perceive themselves to be.

Here in Hawaii where we treat everyone with respect and aloha, we think everyone is created equal and ought to be treated the same.

--Rep. Chris Lee (D)

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has done a new analysis of the current situation with transgender health coverage. As you may know, while the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has started paying for transition-related healthcare for transgender people, many private insurers deny such coverage, judging it to be "experimental," purely cosmetic," "elective," or just plain icky...even though the American College of Physicians, the American Medical Association and the American Psychological association all consider the treatment to be medically necessary to be available for transgender people.

It's the same as saying if you have cancer, you need chemotherapy if you are going to survive.

--William Padula, Johns Hopkins