| Change your gender, without surgery |
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| Thursday, 30 November 2006 | |
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The proposal will raise several interesting questions, such as whether a man who becomes a woman can marry another man and whether adoption authorities can discover the original gender of an applicant. However, some transgender advocates say that the proposed paperwork burden is too much, and should not be necessary. "Transgender people should not be forced to rely on affidavits from a health care system that tends to be biased against them" according to Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund. "Many transgender people cannot afford sex-change surgery or therapy, and often do not consider it necessary." The news follows plans by San Francisco city office to allow the cost of gender reassignment surgery to city employees to be covered by their employer's health plan. The reasoning behind the proposal is that if city employees are entitled to reimbursement of the cost of other medical procedures, then to exclude gender reassignment surgery would be discriminatory. There are an estimated 15,000 transgender people (men who were women and women who were men, but excluding men who would like to be women and women who would like to be men) living in San Francisco, although not all of them work for the City Office. Yet. Gender reassignment surgery isn't cheap, with the typical cost of MTF (male to female) surgery running at $37,000, and FTM (female to male) surgery costing $77,000. The total process is a lengthy one, requiring several procedures. "Even though we're not happy with the limitations [a cap of $50,000], we think the fact that the benefits are being offered is wonderful," said Larry Brinkin, of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. "This action will help lead to the elimination of discrimination against transgender people and hopefully will be a model for employers across the United States," Brinkin said. The new proposal will be of benefit to employees such as Marcus Arana, another employee of the Human Rights Commission agency and who is transitioning from female to male. Before joining the City's payroll, Marcus had to user her own medical insurance policy to pay for her double mastectomy, but the new proposal will allow him to undergo chest reconstructive surgery and a complete hysterectomy. |
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