http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/26/frat-brothers-raise-money-to-cover-trans-members-top-surgery-after-insurance-company-denies-his-claim Comments On: Frat Brothers Raise Money To Cover Trans Member's Top Surgery After Insurance Company Denies His Claim by Dan Savage en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Thu, 20 Jun 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Thu, 20 Jun 2013 05:15:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss I think that many women have a problem with some (not all) FTM trans people that they don't have with MTF trans people. The problem doesn't seem (to us) to come from a lack of understanding (or from the kind of revulsion that some cismen seem to feel at MTF transpeople) but rather from too much understanding.
See many women have experiences of having wanted to be male. I wanted to be a boy so badly as a child. Until I was three I told my family I was going to become a boy. All the way through high school I dressed like a boy and acted like a boy wished I had been born a boy because I knew for a fact that being a boy was better. It didn't occur to me that I was trans, though (this was before there was much trans visibility). From my perspective now, as a mother of a daughter, I was just struggling with "internalized misogyny syndrome". Not surprising given gender politics in my household and the country more broadly. With time I realized that you can use power tools and wear skirts, even at the same time. You can even use power tools while having your period.

I know a young FTM trans person who...it seems to me and "his" family that "he" is probably still suffering from internalized misogyny syndrome. The way "he" talks about women reminds me of myself at that age.

Posted by internalized misogyny syndrome]]> Fri, 01 Mar 2013 23:22:23 -0800 The Stranger
As for understanding, life isn't long enough. Being unable to understand human beings (and being convinced I'm quite inhuman), I make do with listening. Most people are quite capable of telling one what's necessary.
Posted by vennominon]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:52:51 -0800 The Stranger
I'd actually agree with you on that. The free market isn't always better, and like any business, health insurers put profit ahead of the well-being of their customers. To the extent we want to put access to healthcare first, the free market is an inferior mechanism. To the extent that we are resigned to leaving it in the hands of the free market, we have to accept that they won't pay any more than they are legally obligated to.
Posted by Fr0zt]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:06:34 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Spike1382]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:35:25 -0800 The Stranger
I'm not saying that there aren't sleazy insurance companies out there, or that most wouldn't love to avoid paying claims, but it wouldn't be a good business model. Who would buy insurance from a company that never pays claims.

The reason for a lot of the vilification is that people buy insurance for one type of thing, but expect it to pay for everything. The wind/flood distinction in Katrina was a particularly heinous example, but more common disputes are akin to someone who buys only fire insurance and demands coverage when his house floods. Insurance companies usually pay up right away when it's clear they owe on a claim (they suffer huge penalties in bad faith claims and lose customers otherwise), but they'd all go out of business if they paid on claims they didn't owe.

As for my nefarious role, most often it involves explaining to insurance companies that they do in fact have to pay on a claim that they think they can avoid (or that they don't, but the chance of an u favorable judgment is high enough that they should just pay anyway). Other times it involves telling them not to pay for a claim where an insured clearly violated the contract, or generally telling them how courts in a given state have interpretted a relevant provision.

The blood money / satan's den stuff sounds pretty cool, but the truth is a bit banal.
Posted by Fr0zt]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:17:40 -0800 The Stranger Posted by ExitOnly]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 12:12:51 -0800 The Stranger Posted by very bad homo]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 12:01:09 -0800 The Stranger Posted by kwodell]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:31:19 -0800 The Stranger
Most of the people on here who are saying the surgery shouldn't be covered simply do not understand that this is the single most successful treatment for the health and well being of this person involved and is recognized as such by the medical establishment.

Trans people have been left by the wayside for way way too long, and ignored simply because their issues are not "attractive" or "easy". I'm so glad to see that this year will be Seattle VERY FIRST Trans* pride march and event. The future is coming and Trans* people will be there.

If you wish to help the Trans* People in your community to obtain the rights and resources that are due, visit www.genderjusticeleague.com and give them a hand or a donation.
Posted by Voxpop]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:28:55 -0800 The Stranger German Wachbataillon soldiers develop br…
Posted by MemeGene]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:27:09 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Spike1382]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:20:59 -0800 The Stranger
I challenge you to find a health insurance plan that would cover breast reduction for men with man boobs. That is and always will be considered cosmetic, and insurance doesn't cover elective cosmetic surgery.

It's going to be a challenge for transpeople going forward to figure out what insurance should realistically cover for their transition. Hormone therapy? Yes. Bottom surgery (so to speak)? Probably. Anything that comes across as cosmetic? It'll be a cold day in hell frankly.

The transgendered man in this story shouldn't have had to pay for his hormone treatment, but his own top surgery? I'm going to say yes. Health care is about making people healthy (to the best of its ability), not about making us perfectly happy with our appearance.
Posted by keshmeshi]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:16:53 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Dormant Mind]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 10:57:30 -0800 The Stranger Posted by wingedkat]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 10:47:29 -0800 The Stranger
Not, that's not "not understanding". That's using "not understanding" as an excuse for bigotry.

Not understanding doesn't inherently lead to being a bigot.

I will never understand what goes on for a trans person. I don't understand how they feel about their bodies. I can barely understand straight people.

But I still fully support them, their decisions about their bodies and lives, and genuinely want to see them protected and given equal opportunity in all walks of life.

Sorry, but understanding isn't necessary. Just because some people use their lack of understanding as an excuse to be jerks doesn't mean the problem lies with their understanding. It lies with their personality and choices.

Lacking understanding of what a person experiences doesn't mean, however, not caring or listening to them. I don't need to understand because I can still listen. I don't understand what they experience, how they see themselves and others, or what it feels like to be them.

But I can listen to what they say they want from me. That, combined with a desire to see them happy is all I, or anyone really, needs. Be that a desire to be called by a certain pronouns, to sign a petition to get legislators to protect their rights, to simply treat them like any other man or woman... what ever. I don't have to understand their experience to do these things.


Posted by Fortunate]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 10:39:37 -0800 The Stranger
Some of it is probably just that "understand" is often used where "empathize" should be used.

I understand that gender identity is very important to many people, and that some people want to change genders.

I don't understand why it is important, or why they want to change. I can hear the arguments, but they make no sense to me, because the arguments are based on emotions and feelings I do not share. More correctly, I don't empathize with the desire to change gender.

I do sympathize with it, because I empathize with the desire to change oneself and I understand that the changing of someone else's gender has no relevance on my life and potentially will make that person happier, which I think is a good thing.
Posted by wingedkat]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 10:30:59 -0800 The Stranger
@Indighost: Happy to help.
Posted by MemeGene]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 10:11:41 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Brooklyn Reader]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:55:34 -0800 The Stranger
I brought up anorexia before, and it is a good example here: the anorexic has a normal body, but the brain sees it as horribly overweight. It is foolish and wrong to say the body is wrong, and the mind is right. Or even phantom limb syndrome. The body is missing an arm, and the brain is wrong that it is still there and in pain. The brain is the problem, not the body.

The fact that there are seperate tests for physical and mental issues is irrelevant. I never claimed that there is not a differenct between the two, and one was more "important" than the other. The sticking point is in regard to insurance anyway, not if gender dysmorphia is a real thing, or if trans people have mental illnesses.

Also, your last sentance is incredibly condescending. I do not know if you intended it, but I do not need you to pat my head and send me to the library.
Posted by Theodore Gorath]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:51:41 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Spike1382]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:28:53 -0800 The Stranger
By all means, be kind and respectful, but a crucial part of that is an open-hearted desire to understand more about what it is that you are accepting.
Posted by Fr0zt]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:26:53 -0800 The Stranger
As someone who likes both male and female genitalia on other people, I can't imagine hating my own, whichever they happened to be. I don't feel defined by my sex organs; I'm pretty confident I'd be basically the same person if I had been born with a penis that I am with a clit.

I especially don't understand the strict lines sometimes drawn between genders. It is like they want to be male so they can do "masculine" things, or female so they can do "feminine" things, and I want to just ask "what is holding you back?!"

So, I don't understand or empathize with their problem.

However, I sympathize with their need to change what they can to make themselves who they want to be, and who am I to say what they need and what will work?

Posted by wingedkat]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:18:50 -0800 The Stranger @24 Thanks, @11 and @23 made me understand.

However...Look at dan's recent email with the catholic lady. She was sure trying to be kind, but she failed because she didn't understand his point of view. If she did, she would have tried a diferent tack or not tried to convert him at all.
Posted by Indighost]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:13:13 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Fr0zt]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:11:11 -0800 The Stranger
And sure, if you really want to understand something go for it, but some things are going to be beyond your ability to understand. When you don't understand accept it and just be kind.
Posted by Fortunate]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:09:22 -0800 The Stranger