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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Fairfield, Iowa: In some societies and indigenous cultures, the community recognizes the existence of more than one gender and some communities even go so far as giving special status to transgender members of their community. Is the problem more our society's idea of gender and less the transgender peoples' idea of themselves?
Debra Rosenberg: We came across examples of transgender people in societies all over the world. And as you say, transgender people are sometimes given an exalted status and revered—in some communities in Mexico and India, for example. It's safe to say that our own society has not been all that accepting of transgender so far.
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Bangalore, India: Most of these truly touching stories have a common underlying theme of breaking free and the dilemma associated with it. However I wonder are there amongst us t-folk, people who like being in the middle enjoying both cliche' of sports illustrated and good house keeping at the same time.
Debra Rosenberg: I'm sure there are people who, as you put it, "like being in the middle." In our story, sociologist Michael Kimmel talks about the old boundaries of either/or, male/female breaking down into a much more fluid system. It doesn't seem like the United States is quite there yet on a societal level, but individual people might be. You also mention two pretty standard examples of gender roles—Sports Illustrated and Good Housekeeping. Who says women can't read about sports and men about housekeeping anyway?
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