Trans News/ Issues

[weatherboi]

http://chrismilloy.ca/2012/01/transg...nes-in-canada/



Transgender People are Completely Banned From Boarding Airplanes in Canada



The shit hit the fan in the trans blogosphere last night, when it came to light that there is a disturbing new section in the Identity Screening Regulations used in airports throughout Canada. Simply put, Transgender People are Completely Banned From Boarding Airplanes in Canada.

The offending section of the regulations reads:

5.2 (1) An air carrier shall not transport a passenger if …
(c) the passenger does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents;

Although this obviously discriminatory smear of regulation did not come to significant public attention until very recently, it apparently came into effect on July 27th, 2011.

It is important to note that these regulations are not actually a piece of legislation, which would have had to pass through readings and votes in the House and Senate (which is probably why it went unnoticed until now). Rather, the Identity Screening Regulations are a set of rules implemented unilaterally by the Ministry of Transportation, as part of Canada’s so-called Passenger Protect, which is essentially the Canadian Federal Government’s equivalent to the U.S.’s “no-fly” list.

Minister of Transportation Denis Lebel is, of course, a federal Conservative MP appointed to the cabinet position by Stephen Harper.

So what does this mean? Well, in order to change the ‘sex’ designation on a Canadian Passport, the federal government requires proof that surgery has taken place, or will take place within one year. So for non-operative transgender persons, for gender nonconforming (genderqueer) persons, and for the vast majority of pre-operative transsexual persons, it is literally impossible to obtain proper travel documentation marked with the sex designation which “matches” the gender identity in which they live.

In the eyes of the honourable Minister of Transportation, that makes trans people unfit to fly in Canada.

It is interesting to note that this regulatory adjustment occurred immediately following the federal election in 2011. In the previous parliament, Bill C-389, a bill to amend the Human Rights Code to explicitly enshrine protections against discrimination for transgender people, had successfully passed in the House of Commons, only to die on the Senate floor when Harper declared a Federal Election (thereby dissolving parliament).

Is the timing of this disturbing and blatantly discriminatory regulatory adjustment merely a coincidence? That is up to you to decide. However, the negative impact on trans people is crystal clear, and we need to take action now.

What You Can Do:

Find Your MP and write them a letter. Tell them you are not okay with this discrimination.
Contact the honourable Minister of Transportation Denis Lebel by phone, letter, or email.
Share this article by clicking the “Like” or “Recommend” button above (or below).
Sign this online petition: Tell Harper to Allow Trans People to Fly on Airplanes
Facebook Group: À bas l’interdiction aérienne transphobe—Against Canada’s trans flight ban

Recommended Further Reading:

Air Canada confirms they must comply with transphobic law (Jennifer McCreath)

Canadian Department of Justice…Here comes Josie!! (TranssisterR8TO)

UPDATE – JAN 30 17:51

I want to stress that as yet, I have no confirmed cases of a trans person actually being refused boarding. However, as I commented on leftygirl’s blog this afternoon:

Regardless of who may be slipping through the cracks due to matters of convenience or due to individual cases of ignorance on the part of the airport gateminders, the regs are the regs. And the regs ban trans people explicitly by their definition. We cannot allow regs which judge people based on how they “appear” to be gendered; it is unacceptable.

[1ladyface]

I live in the states but I'm a dual citizen. I'm gonna write a letter today. Thanks for the heads up! This regulation is so conservative and bizarre it sounds...American.

[canadianmusician]

It's surprising how long this took to surface, but it's good it's finally out there. I have a number of friends who've flown since July and they had physicians letters stating they were trans. I know that this came into effect shortly after terrorists were caught trying to board a plane dressed as women, but I think that the gov't could have chosen a better route to do this by.

Here's someone you can contact as well:

Sandra Miller
Chief Regulatory Planning and Services, Regulatory Affairs, Security
Transport Canada
330 Sparks Street, 13th Floor, Tower C
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N5
Telephone: 613-998-9605
Email: sandra.miller@tc.gc.ca

[tiggs]

Thank you for posting this weatherboi. I read this tonight and was so disappointed and embarrased to find this coming from my country. I think sometimes I just don't want to believe this non-sense can come from the same government that allows us to marry.

[Nadeest]

I finally found out a bit more about that transwoman in Tennessee that was arrested outside the DMV for taking her top off. Here is the link to it: http://http://manicsquirrel.com/2011...-days-in-jail/
Apparently, she served 21 days in jail so far, and went to court on Dec. 20th. I couldn't find any more information then that, though. Has anyone heard anything about it, since then?

[christie]

In this month's issue of Employee Benefit News:

Large companies push progressive benefits forward

By Lisa V. Gillespie

February 1, 2012

Thirty-three percent of major employers offer transgender-inclusive benefits. This is five times more companies than last year, and a big part of the push came from the Corporate Equality Index, a series of guidelines from the Human Rights Campaign that measured employers on five criteria regarding benefits for transgendered workers: short-term leave, counseling by a mental health professional, hormone therapy, medical visits to monitor hormone therapy and surgical procedures, without any exclusions.


Eliminating exclusions

The "without exclusions" part is significant, because for years, transgendered employees were denied medical benefits because they were in the process of transitioning or had previously undergone gender reassignment surgery. So, say a transgendered employee was injured in a fall, went to the emergency room and disclosed to the hospital he had undergone gender reassignment years before. Because of these "exclusions," the employee would be denied treatment because of language like, "Services for, or leading to, sex transformation surgery," or "Gender Transformation: treatment or surgery to change gender including any direct or indirect complications or aftereffects thereof." The same denials pertained to mental health services because of "Transsexual surgery including medical or psychological counseling and hormonal therapy in preparation for, or subsequent to, any such surgery."

"There was a lot of moral judgment of people changing their sex, but we have a much more nuanced experience with it now because more and more people have been talking about it rather than sweeping it under the rug," says Andre Wilson, a policy consultant and educator on gender issues for 20 years. On top of the basic medical care that was frequently denied, employers were also not paying for the sex reassignment surgery. The average cost for a male-to-female surgery is about $17,000, plus $1,000 for therapy, $1500 for hormones and $500 for doctors visits and lab tests. Though the cost for care is relatively the same if an individual or an insurance company picks up the tab, the cost to a plan is relatively small in comparison to the out-of-pocket cost to an individual.

Though no claims data has been made available by the private industry, one city has, and it has seen better results than originally anticipated. In 2001, the City of San Francisco made available transgender benefits, and their claims cost much less than they had anticipated. In 2004 and 2005, there had been 11 claims for surgery, totaling $183,000, or $46,000 per year, not including costs for therapy or hormones. The city lowered its charge to $10.20 per year-per employee - or 85 cents per month - raised its lifetime cap to $75,000, removed the one year employment requirement and offered the benefit on every health plan offered to its 30,000 employees.

"This is why we have insurance in the first place, to spread the risk of high-cost treatments across a pool of people, and that's true for everything," Wilson says. One of the main reasons health plans and self-insured employers didn't offer the benefits is because people simply didn't know.

Wilson explains it this way: "For executives, maybe they can afford it, so they don't ask for the changes in the policy because they don't want to make waves, and the low-wage workers don't want to ask because they don't want to make waves. They have a well-documented history of trying to fit in."


'Leveling the playing field'

Benefits aren't the only arena transgendered employees must grapple with: 97% of transgendered people surveyed by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in 2009 reported experiencing harassment or mistreatment on the job, while 47% had experienced an adverse job outcome, such as being fired, not hired or denied a promotion. But with providing benefits, "you're essentially leveling the playing field," says Victoria Fulkerson, vice president of corporate relations and supplier diversity at the National Lesbian and Gay Chamber of Commerce. "You waste less time on how you're different and spend more time on how you can do your job."

The majority of the 636 companies cited by HRC are self-insured, but companies under group plans can also get coverage, although it is sometimes an "add-on" for an extra free. Aetna offers it as such, but would not specify how much it costs a company. Scot Roskelley, communications director for Mid-America region, also wouldn't say if they have plans to make it part of their basic medical coverage.

For self-insured plans, it's easier to offer because it assumes the risk. However, according to Deena Fidas, deputy director at HRC, most insurance companies have had guidelines around the coverage for a decade or more.

"Some companies will charge because they're still trying dissuade people from adding it because, I suspect secretly - and they wouldn't acknowledge it - they have a moral objection," Wilson says.

But just like depression, having gender identity disorder is diagnosed by doctors, and the American Medical Association asserts that when discriminatory financial barriers are placed between the transgender community and proper health care by dismissing treatments as "cosmetic" or "experimental" - even when covered for other patients with other recognized medical conditions - more expensive problems can develop as a result, such as depression, substance abuse problems and stress-related illness. And, Wilson says, those companies don't "understand how vital these services are."

Staples, a self-insured employer, offers two plans that went into effect Jan. 1. Craig Hazenfield, vice president of human resources at Staples, says a main reason they hadn't included the benefits in previous years was simple education.

"This is new territory for many companies. Making advances in this area requires understanding, education and, in some cases, exposure to transgender individuals," he says, relating it to domestic partner benfits. "More companies will recognize the value these benefits provide to valuable associates who just happen to be transgender."

The business case for offering the benefits appeals to a price tag that can run lower than some expensive surgeries, and to employee morale and productivity. "Our associates can't be expected to be at their best if they are burdened with something that prevents them from being who they are in the workplace or burdens them with medical expenses," Hazenfield says.

MGM Grand International is another employer who offers benefits, but it did not qualify under the Corporate Equality Index because it only offers prescription medication and counseling related to transgender care. Jeff Ellis, vice president of benefits, said that the company had been offering these for a little over five years, and that he envisions it will start offering additional benefits in the upcoming year.

Fields expects the number of companies they qualify as transgender-inclusive to increase again next year, because though the term "transgender" was taboo or simply unknown in the past, it is gaining recognition, along with the benefits that go with it.

[sanee66]

Transgender children getting more drug, hormone treatments

The Associated Press Posted: Feb 20, 2012 11:39 AM ET Last Updated: Feb 20, 2012 3:10 PM ET

The Passionate Eye: Transgender kids
Switching gender roles and occasionally pretending to be the opposite sex is common in young children. But about 1 in 10,000 children actually feel they were born with the wrong bodies, some doctors say. (iStock)A small but growing number of teens and even younger children who think they were born the wrong sex are getting support from parents and from doctors who give them sex-changing treatments, according to reports in the medical journal Pediatrics.

It's an issue that raises ethical questions, and some experts urge caution in treating children with puberty-blocking drugs and hormones.

An 8-year-old second-grader in Los Angeles is a typical patient. Born a girl, the child announced at 18 months, "I a boy" and has stuck with that belief. The family was shocked but now refers to the child as a boy and is watching for the first signs of puberty to begin treatment, his mother told The Associated Press.

Pediatricians need to know these kids exist and deserve treatment, said Dr. Norman Spack, author of one of three reports published Monday and director of one of the nation's first gender identity medical clinics, at Children's Hospital Boston.

"If you open the doors, these are the kids who come. They're out there. They're in your practices," Spack said in an interview.

Switching gender roles and occasionally pretending to be the opposite sex is common in young children. But these kids are different. They feel certain they were born with the wrong bodies.

Some are labeled with "gender identity disorder," a psychiatric diagnosis. But Spack is among doctors who think that's a misnomer. Emerging research suggests they may have brain differences more similar to the opposite sex.

1 in 10,000
Spack said by some estimates, 1 in 10,000 children have the condition.

Transgender kids face psychiatric risks: study
A new study shows that nearly half of 97 children and adolescents diagnosed with gender identity disorder at a Boston hospital between 1998 and 2010 suffered from other psychiatric problems.

The study, led by Children's Hospital Boston endocrinologist Norman Spack, found that 44 per cent of the patients had a history of psychiatric symptoms, 37 per cent were on medication for such symptoms, 21 per cent had a history of self-mutilation and nine per cent had attempted suicide.

Fifty-eight per cent of the children, who had an average age of 14.8 years, were treated with either hormones or puberty-suppressing drugs.

The study was published online in the March issue of the journal Pediatrics on Monday.
Offering sex-changing treatment to kids younger than 18 raises ethical concerns, and their parents' motives need to be closely examined, said Dr. Margaret Moon, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' bioethics committee. She was not involved in any of the reports.

Some kids may get a psychiatric diagnosis when they are just hugely uncomfortable with narrowly defined gender roles; or some may be gay and are coerced into treatment by parents more comfortable with a sex change than having a homosexual child, said Moon, who teaches at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.

It's harmful "to have an irreversible treatment too early," Moon said.

Doctors who provide the treatment say withholding it would be more harmful.

These children sometimes resort to self-mutilation to try to change their anatomy; the other two journal reports note that some face verbal and physical abuse and are prone to stress, depression and suicide attempts. Spack said those problems typically disappearin kids who've had treatment and are allowed to live as the opposite sex.

Guidelines from the Endocrine Society endorse transgender hormone treatment but say it should not be given before puberty begins. At that point, the guidelines recommend puberty-blocking drugs until age 16, then lifelong sex-changing hormones with monitoring for potential health risks. Mental health professionals should be involved in the process, the guidelines say.

The group's members are doctors who treat hormonal conditions.

Those guidelines, along with YouTube videos by sex-changing teens and other media attention, have helped raise awareness about treatment and led more families to seek help, Spack said.

His report details a fourfold increase in patients at the Boston hospital. His Gender Management Service clinic, which opened at the hospital in 2007, averages about 19 patients each year, compared with about four per year treated for gender issues at the hospital in the late 1990s.

The report details 97 girls and boys treated between 1998 and 2010; the youngest was four years old. Kids that young and their families get psychological counselling and are monitored until the first signs of puberty emerge, usually around age 11 or 12. Then children are given puberty-blocking drugs, in monthly $1,000 injections or implants imbedded in the arm.

In another Pediatrics report, a Texas doctor says he's also provided sex-changing treatment to an increasing number of children; so has a clinic at Children's Hospital Los Angeles where the 8-year-old is a patient.

The drugs used by the clinics are approved for delaying puberty in kids who start maturing too soon. The drugs' effects are reversible, and Spack said they've caused no complications in his patients. The idea is to give these children time to mature emotionally and make sure they want to proceed with a permanent sex change. Only 1 of the 97 opted out of permanent treatment, Spack said.

Early treatment has advantages
Kids will more easily pass as the opposite gender, and require less drastic treatment later, if drug treatment starts early, Spack said. For example, boys switching to girls will develop breasts and girls transitioning to boys will be flat-chested if puberty is blocked and sex-hormones started soon enough, Spack said.

Sex hormones, especially in high doses when used long-term, can have serious side effects, including blood clots and cancer. Spack said he uses low, safer doses but that patients should be monitored.

Gender-reassignment surgery, which may include removing or creating penises, is only done by a handful of U.S. doctors, on patients at least 18 years old, Spack said. His clinic has worked with local surgeons who've done breast removal surgery on girls at age 16, but that surgery can be relatively minor, or avoided, if puberty is halted in time, he said.

The mother of the Los Angeles 8-year-old says he's eager to begin treatment.

When the child was told he could get shots to block breast development, "he was so excited," the mother said.

He also knows he'll eventually be taking testosterone shots for life but surgery right now is uncertain.

The child attends a public school where classmates don't know he is biologically a girl. For that reason, his mother requested anonymity.

She said she explained about having a girl's anatomy but he rejected that, refused to wear dresses, and has insisted on using a boy's name since preschool.

The mother first thought it was a phase, then that her child might be a lesbian, and sought a therapist's help to confirm her suspicion. That's when she first heard the term "gender identity disorder" and learned it's often not something kids outgrow.

Accepting his identity has been difficult for both parents, the woman said. Private schools refused to enrol him as a boy, and the family's pediatrician refused to go along with their request to treat him like a boy. They found a physician who would, Dr. Jo Olson, medical director of a transgender clinic at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

Olson said the journal reports should help persuade more doctors to offer these kids sex-changing treatment or refer them to specialists who will.

"It would be so nice to move this out of the world of mental health, and into the medical world," Olson said.

[TCB]

Hey planeteers.

I'm not sure of a more appropriate place to put this but I would love your support anyway. I sat down with "The Self Made Men" for an article about transition and my music.
Check it out and I would love for you to follow my work through Facebook.

Cheers!

Cris

http://www.theselfmademen.com/cristopheraugust.htm

[1ladyface]

This seems to be focused primarily on trans women but it's exciting news!

http://qpdx.com/2012/02/obama-admini...er-population/

[Nadeest]

Yes, the grants are designed to help treat transwomen of color, who tend to face the harshest discrimination of all transpeople, seems like. The Obama administration has done a lot to help the GLBT community, I think. It often gets overlooked because he tends to do things quietly, seems to me. I kinda like that way of doing things. You can get a lot more things done that way, without someone objecting to them, for one reason. :P

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by Nadeest

Yes, the grants are designed to help treat transwomen of color, who tend to face the harshest discrimination of all transpeople, seems like. The Obama administration has done a lot to help the GLBT community, I think. It often gets overlooked because he tends to do things quietly, seems to me. I kinda like that way of doing things. You can get a lot more things done that way, without someone objecting to them, for one reason. :P

I agree with you. I was disheartened to see the LGBT community be so down on him because he didn't move fast enough for them when it came to equal rights. But, he got us there (military).

[Nadeest]

We, as a community, need to think a bit more, and try to be fair with everyone that is helpingus improve our lives. I know that we want it right now, and it is quite understandable, but that isn't how it works. If you look at history, slow improvements in the way that a minority group is treated is generally how it happens.
It isn't that long ago that there were signs saying: "No Irish need apply." on many places. Now that particular bit of bigotry is no longer around.

[DapperButch]

http://www.washingtonblade.com/2011/...trans-meeting/

[EnderD_503]

Originally Posted by DapperButch

http://www.washingtonblade.com/2011/...trans-meeting/

I noticed that this apparently happened last spring, yet for some reason I've only been hearing about it here and others telling me about it this spring. So I'm a bit confused, lol.

Looking at some of the articles, it seems odd that there has been no follow up as far as what was achieved by the meeting. All it says is that they were focusing largely on ending job discrimination. But I think that even that agenda is ignoring the struggles of some of the most vulnerable of the trans population, namely trans people of colour, homeless trans people, other low-income trans people and trans sex workers. I guess I just don't like this "one step at a time" approach that always leaves the rights of the most marginalised to come last while the concerns of those with more social privilege typically come first, in the same way trans rights were forever thrown by the wayside by the LG community for decades in order to obtain LG rights. I really would hope that trans rights advocates would learn from that and lobby for everyone's rights, and recognising how desperately something needs to be done to keep some of the most marginalised trans people safe from violent assault and sexual assault.

So does anyone know anything further about what was on the table at this meeting? Nothing seems to have been said in its aftermath. It came as a "symbolic marker" and went without much talk of it, or so it seems.

[Nadeest]

I do know that HUD had/has a pilot program here in Houston to help homeless transgendered people. It is in effect right now, and is in it's third year of operation, though I don't know if it is going to be expanded or not, or if it has been.

[Soon]

Transgender Miss Universe Canada Finalist Jenna Talackova Disqualified From Competition

[EnderD_503]

Originally Posted by HowSoonIsNow

Transgender Miss Universe Canada Finalist Jenna Talackova Disqualified From Competition

This makes me so sick. I really don't understand why it matters that she was AMAB. It shouldn't matter. Just another reason why the current system of sex assignment at birth is damaging to trans and intersexed kids and the way the public views them. She is just as "naturally born female" as any other contestant as far as I'm concerned. I find it interesting that it seems its pretty much always female levels of competition (whether in sport or in other competitions like beauty pageants) that are so strictly policed by "sex criteria."

This comment made me sick, in particular:

Davila insisted there is no bad blood between Talackova and Miss Universe Canada, and that they wish her the best.

“She was excited about the competition. Just because she can’t compete doesn’t mean we stopped loving her.”

Yes, of course you "love" her...you've just refused to recognise her as a woman, claimed that she's not a "real girl" and publicly humiliated her...but yeah...you love her.

[Nadeest]

I didn't see that quote in the article, but it does not surprise me in the least, either. That seems extremely typical of people like that. They discriminated against Miss Talackova and then lied like hell about the fact that they discriminated against her.

[EnderD_503]

I took the quote from the Toronto Star article, and didn't realise it wasn't in the Huffpost one. But yes, that is what's angering about many organisation's approaches to trans issues in Canada. It's basically a form of liberal/passive discrimination that is still very harmful and affecting how Canadian society sees trans people. "You're a real woman...but according to the contest you aren't a real woman."

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/a...m-pageant?bn=1

[weatherboi]

this is a follow up to a story that ran earlier this year but couldnt find it in this thread.


http://www.examiner.com/lgbt-relatio...-german-courts

A German court has decided an 11-year-old transgender German girl should be institutionalized rather than live her life as a girl. Having been born a boy, Alexis Kaminsky, has always felt she was a girl.

When Alexis' parents decided to get divorced, the German court learned of Alexis’ circumstances. Throughout the process, the child’s mother tried to get her help, mental health treatment, to help her cope with thoughts and feelings about everything taking place. Somewhere along the way, the courts decided Alexis is better off in the country’s mental institutional system, where she may be‘re-programmed’ if you will, and have her views of her gender ‘corrected’.

Activists in the transgender community will hold protests in reaction to the decision to have Alexis Kaminsky institutionalized on Monday, March 26th, 2012. They protest:

‘Stop Alex forced into institutionalization at once’: “Institutions like the youth office and the Charité use force on humans through enforcement and psychological pressure! Each gender and each gender identity is a right, not a disease.”


The transgender community posits that gender identity is something that is developed at the individual level, not something that the community or state can dictate. Gender is a societal construct; sex is a biological one. How should these concepts be used, if at all, as factors in deciding what would most benefit Alexis?



Continue reading on Examiner.com German transgender girl to be institutionalized by German courts - National LGBT Relationships | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/lgbt-relatio...#ixzz1qKBodJoZ