Trans News/ Issues

[Nadeest]

I hope and pray that the VA starts doing our surgeries soon. I would really, really appreciate it if they did, especially if they started doing it in the area where I am living, as I will certainly take advantage of it.

[theoddz]

Nadeest, as you know, I work for the VA, and have worked in 2 different VA Health Care systems (Sacramento, CA, and here in Las Vegas, NV). When the VA decides to offer these services, and I believe that they eventually will, in time, I look for it to happen this way:

There are 22 VISN's (Veterans Integrated Service Networks) in this country and its territories. A VISN is similar to a "region", so to speak, and encompasses several, if not quite a few, individual health care systems, or facilities, with a VAMC and its collection of affiliated outpatient clinics. The big VAMC's are usually, but not always, sitting right beside and are directly affiliated with a state University medical school complex. The VAMC usually takes advantage of the teaching environment and its huge pool of medical residents, students and attending physicians, in addition to facilities and resources. By and large, the care in these VAMC's is usually only as good as the medical school that it is associated/affiliated with. Here in Nevada, for example, the state medical school is located in Reno, which is in northern Nevada, and only has a limited "satellite" type presence here in Las Vegas. The University of Nevada Medical School is not usually considered to be one of "the best" medical schools in this country, and that fact, combined with the fact that the school is not here in Las Vegas, has (IMHO) resulted in a "not so good" quality of care here at the Las Vegas VA. Because of this, I would not want to have any kind of surgery performed on me in this particular VA system. Now, when I worked at the VAMC in Sacramento, CA, we were affiliated with the University of California (Davis) School of Medicine. The care in our VAMC was second to none and the Veterans at the VAMC Sacramento had top-notch care. I would have gladly had surgery at that VAMC. Now, that being said.......

When gastric bypass surgery became popular in the private sector, the VA began offering it to veterans through the VA system, but it wasn't something that every VAMC offered. For the most part, a certain medical center in the VISN was chosen to perform that surgery and when a Veteran chose to undergo it, they were referred and sent to that VAMC for the procedure. The followup was then continued in the Veteran's local facility. The reason for this has to do with the financial resources. I think the VA is still managing these services this way and it's the same for all VISNs nationwide. When the VA begins offering SRS to transgendered Veterans, I look for them to handle it in the same way, but it may turn out to be so limited that it may only be offered in one VA facility, nationwide. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was only offered at the San Francisco VAMC. Remember, the VA health care system is a teaching institution, relying on medical teaching systems for a large part of its provider base. Any kind of lucrative surgical procedure or service will be taught to surgical residents and trainees who want to be able to make money off of it in the private sector. What the VA will do is offer it to Veterans in a teaching scenario for these student doctors at state medical schools. As with other procedures, the quality of that care will be largely dependent on how good the training program and its instructors are.

I wouldn't be one bit surprised if it turns out that the San Francisco VA will be the only facility participating in this kind of a training program and that it will be the referral center for transgendered Veterans seeking SRS, nationwide. Even though that would be inconvenient for many Vets, it would still be a wonderful thing if the VA would offer it. I certainly hope that it does come to pass and that we transgendered Veterans could take advantage of it.

~Theo~

[ahk]

Originally Posted by Alpha Dog

"Transmen" is a documentary that follows the lives of three Tennesseans during their transition from females to males. Each transman faces his own struggles in the film, such as the availability of health insurance for surgeries and discrimination in the workplace and school, as well as coming out as transgender to their friends and family. Currently, Tennessee is the only state with a "law" that bans gender changes on birth certificates. Ohio and Idaho have policy bans that can be overturned by an executive order signed by the governor or government agency. Tennessee is the only one with a law that passed the legislature. This film is a call to action for people to become involved in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues and lobby for legislation that will protect and serve all Tennesseans equally.

View the trailer. http://transmen.tumblr.com/


SPREAD THE WORD FAR AND WIDE!!!

Not sure if this has been posted, but its officially out on youtube or tumblr.



and

[Toughy]

One of the things Dr Bowers talked about was the complete lack of surgical training at every medical school in the country. If the training is not available then you will not get surgeons to do SRS. That is one of the reasons so few surgeons do these types of surgeries.

She is now located in San Mateo (on the peninsula about 20-30 minute drive to SF) and also see patients in Seattle. The Trinidad office is closed. Her being located in San Mateo makes her availabe to UCSF medical school. The SF VAMC is affliated with the UCSF Medical School........consequently we get first rate, cutting edge care. I believe I heard her say she wants to work with UCSF and start a training program for SRS. If UCSF does it, then it's extremely likely the SF VA will end up doing the surgeries.

Theo ...great explanation for how the VA system is set up. Thanks for helping folks understand the VA model. The other thing that affects quality of care at every VA medical facility is leadership. Strong leadership in every facility translates to excellent care.

The VA model should be the single payer model for the entire country. I want to scream every time Obama and others say Medicare for all..........NO NO NO...........VA care for all. There is a pharmacy formulary (which the VA negotiates drug prices, Medicare does not) but it is huge and it's never been an issue for me to get drugs not on the formulary. The doc makes a call to the outpatient pharmacy and I go pick it up. There is no 'this test/procedure/referral must be approved' before it can be done. Physical Therapy gave me a cane to walk with on the spot and a special walker because of the RA in my wrists. No approval required. She ordered (on the computer) the special walker while I was sitting at her desk and it arrived at my house 2 weeks later. I'll stop because it's a derail...sorry

[Slowpurr]

Getting funding from non-traditional sources is not new, but it is becoming more popular-as is selling directly to fans. An inevitable yet delightful side of this is certainly more diverse entertainment being made available to a wider audience and in better quality.

Kickstarter is one of these crowd-sourced online funding platforms and Hand basket productions has received funding to help them reach their goal to fund a three volume erotic documentary named Doing it Again: In Depth, to be produced and directed by Tobi Hill-Meyer. The plan is for three volumes; the first two focusing on trans women with trans partners, trans women with cis partners and the third volume addressing gender queer trans women and trans women who choose genderqueer partners.

The bulk of the film will be filmed in the PNW, but casting calls will be made in a few cities throughout the US and CAN. There is an online application available. I will post a link to that as well as some general information about the documentary. Happy viewing!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...again-in-depth

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...RjF1cHBIRlE6MQ

[Nadeest]

Toughy, Theoddz, from what you have said, it seems likely that that is how it is going to go, if all goes well. I think that it would be wonderful if that happened, even if Dr. Bowers only trains the surgeons at the medical school for a start. For starters, the more people that are trained to do it, the more likely it is that others will be trained, in time, as new surgeons become experienced at this procedure.
If they start also training people at the SF VAMC that would be even better. I'd happily go to SF to have my SRS done by the VA there. Mind you, I would still have to find the funds to get there, and support myself, but it would certainly be worth it, to me.

[Nadeest]

This is very good news, if limited in scope: http://gaystarnews.com/article/tasma...E2%80%99211012

[Linus]

Saw this story: http://www.canada.com/news/national/...924/story.html and made me wonder... hrmm... could this potentially open a door for FTMs?

[DMW]

Biden Gets It: Trans Rights Are a Defining Civil Rights Fight

by WATCHER Posted November 02, 2012 (6 hours ago)
http://www.sodahead.com/united-state...stion-3292249/

http://www.care2.com/causes/biden-ge...#ixzz2B52Y92U2

[Nadeest]

Linus, I think that it is possible that it eventually will open a door, but it is going to take lots of time, I'm afraid. There are also likely to be transphobes that freak out about it, if they find out that transmen are using this to help themselves father children.

[Greyson]

Transgender college hoops player keeps head high

By LISA LEFF
Associated Press


In the days leading up to the game, people had plenty to say about 6-foot-6-inch, 220-pound Gabrielle Ludwig, who joined the Lady Saints as a mid-season walk-on and became, according to advocates, the first transsexual to play college hoops as both a man and a woman.


http://www.sacbee.com/2012/12/13/505...ps-player.html

[alexri]

http://transgenderlawcenter.org/archives/2773

The last 12 months saw great advances in the areas of employment protections and health care access that should continue to yield considerable progress for months and years to come.

(My notes: very good start, a long way to go)

[alexri]

http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/c...inclusive-heal

Since 2004, the HRC Foundation has asked employers whether they offer transgender health benefits without exclusion as part of its annual Corporate Equality Index survey. Businesses large and small have removed transgender exclusions from their health insurance contracts and modified clinical guidelines to provide health insurance coverage for mental health counseling, hormone therapy, medical visits, surgical procedures and other treatments related to gender transition or sex reassignment.

[Soft*Silver]

just ran across this on yahoo. Not totally relevant, but interesting nonetheless

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/sworn-v...166559097.html

[Soft*Silver]

sorry...but that link seems to no longer work...

Originally Posted by Miss_Tia

just ran across this on yahoo. Not totally relevant, but interesting nonetheless

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/sworn-v...166559097.html

[Nadeest]

Isn't it interesting, the way that different cultures have chosen to deal with this?

[Linus]

http://bit.ly/11GH7of <--- link to search about the Virgins of Albania, which was the yahoo news article.

[Nadeest]

I just ran across this AP report. The Massachusetts Department of Education has issued rules on transgender students. From the article, the rules sound pretty good. Here is the link: http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...GTL/story.html

[Nadeest]

I just found this article about recent changes in health insurance in Oregon. It has very broad implications for the whole of the US. I hope that the insurance commissioners in every state take notice of this, and take action to start protecting transgender people. http://www.americanprogress.org/issu...alth-coverage/

[alexri]

CNN Money interviewed six different trans people on unemployment and financial struggles. (There are also other articles in a box on the right.)

http://money.cnn.com/gallery/pf/2013...ebt/index.html