We have it whether we like it or not, so should SRS be covered? I posted this on my Facebook wall and got some interesting responses. It seems that most transpeople felt that it should be, while a CD/TV and an admirer felt that it should not. The admirer compared the procedure to lipo for a 400 pound man.
Here's some of the transcript:
Steve: Point being, most people have something that you could have surgery on, but you 'could live with' at the same time, if that makes any sense. Where do we draw the line on surgeries just because we didn’t hit the genetic jackpot?
Me: 'Could live with?' That's the standard? Wow. And this has nothing to do with the genetic lottery. This has to do with getting corrective surgery for a chronic issue affecting both physical and mental function, that you've ALREADY lived with for a good number of years, and for which you have suffered enough.
So by your logic, let's also stop covering Viagra and birth control. Sexual health is obviously a legitimate issue to cis people, but when it comes to trans people, you say, 'well, we have ours, so who cares about yours?'
It's hypocritical, plain and simple.
And even moreover, it's pretty sad that our supposed 'allies' don't advocate for us for a procedure that at least some of us consider paramount to reconciling our bodies with our identities and mental health.
It's because Cindy doesn't want SRS and Steven wants Lipo, so the rest of us should suffer. It all seems VERY selfish.
Steve: Yes I have suffered. I’ve been single off and on for 10 years and the weight is one reason why. But Im still alive. So are you. neither is killing us. Which is the point. So where do you draw the line?
And by genetic jackpot, I mean I got a fat gene, and you were born male. Obviously neither one of us had much luck with genetics in those regards.
Me: 'Neither is killing us.'
You have no idea about my mental state and how I feel about life the way I'm forced to live it, and when you assume, you make an ass out of...
Also, I've done everything I can up to the point of SRS to assert my identity, physically, socially, sexually, and spiritually, and again, in contrast, there's more than one way to tackle obesity, while there is only one solution to my problem. But on the subject, I also think obesity is caused by the food. PLEASE don't even get me started on the topic of the food supply! That's a whole rant for another day.
The whole thing sort of brings me back to the rhetorical question that asks, 'if you could cheaply and easily make your brain male instead of your body female, presumably with medication, would you do it?' because the better question is, 'if such a medication existed, would it be the only treatment covered?'
I'd tell you shove that pill up your ass, and so would most transwomen. There is ONLY one fix here, and it's a matter of identity and sexual health (again, like Viagra and the pill, which IS covered), so it should most absolutely be offered, again ESPECIALLY when we're all being forced by mandate to contribute to the system.
I'm sorry Steve, and as an open-minded person I don't say this very often: you are absolutely, positively 100% wrong on this. GID is a rare disorder with unique and necessary treatment options. The only thing working against it in the public eye is the fact that every time they meet, or even see on TV, a transperson who doesn't not want surgery, it validates their uneducated opinion that it must not be necessary for the rest of us.
That said, I fail to understand how you and I could have ten mutual trans friends. Just because you sexually fetishize non-ops, that doesn't mean we should all have to exist to suit your sexual desires.
~BB~