Having gender variance classified as a mental disorder and relying on that for health insurance coverage is a bit of false logic. Most insurance companies in the U.S. exclude treatments for Gender Identity Disorder, but there hormonal imbalances are covered for all kinds of conditions that are not related to GID. People who need to have medical support to manage their gender variance can and should be able to access competent medical care through health insurance, but for the most part right now a GID diagnosis must be avoided if coverage is expected. There are transgender health advocates working to address this issue systemically, both from the activist side as well as from the health care provider side. Thanks, by the way, for your generally excellent responses to the questions raised about this sorely neglected and unfortunately too long obscured topic.
It's Not as Simple as Pink or Blue
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Anonymous: how come gays and lesbieans dont change gender. If they want to play the role ofa different sex, then become that sex.
Debra Rosenberg: Sexual orientation is really completely separate from the issue of gender identity. You can be gay or lesbian and not feel you are the wrong gender. Likewise, you can feel you are the wrong gender but be straight or gay.
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Eaton, OH: I am a very liberal, open-minded person. I would be totally fine if either of my children were gay, but if my child wanted to go through sex re-assignment surgery I would feel that I had failed as a parent. I want my children to love their bodies no matter how they were born. How do I better understand the need to do something as extreme as the physical transformation of genitalia?
Debra Rosenberg: Interesting question. One thing we came across in researching this story was the research on "intersex" babies born with either genitalia of indeterminate or both sexes. No one would suggest that a baby born with that kind of anomaly was the product of bad parenting. That's the same argument many parents of gender variant kids make. They say that their kids were born with bodies that don't happen to match their brains—something no one would deliberately choose.
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