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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San Francisco, CA: I am a transwoman and have been reading a lot about the fact that a M to F such as myself has a biologically male body but a biologically and neurologically female brain. This would certainly take a lot of the "mystery" out of it. If society were educated perhaps then there would be far less hate, violence and homicide committed against the transgender community, don't you think so to?
Debra Rosenberg: Even if scientists could find a biological cause for transgenderism, you never know whether that will change people's attitudes and lower violence and discrimination. People of different races—certainly a biologically determined state—have had to deal with similar problems throughout history.
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Monterey, CA: How can you possibly expect people to take this cover story seriously when you (a) fail to mention the most important & eye-opening movie on the subject to date, "Transamerica" (2005) AND (b) don't even mention bisexuality, as if that isn't a factor in the situation. Do you really think stringing together a bunch of case studies and throwing in the ususal timeline constitutes news or research?
Debra Rosenberg: Glad you enjoyed our story! You're right—we didn't mention "Transamerica," but only because it's a two-year-old movie and we could only include so many example. (It was very illuminating on this subject, though, you are right.) We don't mention bisexuality because we do explain that trangenderism is completely separate from sexual orientation. We just didn't feel the need to list every type of sexual orientation.
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