The Cutting Edge-May 3013
Barbara F.
Anderson, Ph.D., LCSW
Ooops!!! An astute
reader and lawyer gently corrected me on a statement in last month’s
column. Regarding an article on the
website of the Human Rights Campaign
in which I repeated their assertion that there is no federal law protecting
against workplace discrimination, the reader states that in fact, Title VII
does offer such protection. The case is
Macy v. Holder and was decided in 2011.
Interestingly, the complainant in the case was Mia Macy, a resident of
the Bay Area. Subsequently I returned to
the HRC site and reread the article but was unable to find any way to comment
on or correct the post.
Several months ago I featured the Jim Collins Foundation, the only national non-profit organization with
a mission to fund gender-confirming surgeries for trans people who cannot
afford such services They recently announced the names of their 2013
grantees. Nicky Roberts and Mac Anderson
were selected from hundreds of applicants who demonstrated urgency and
financial need. The President and
Co-founder of the organization stated, in making the awards, “Nicky and Mac,
like so many of our applicants, have demonstrated a life or death need for
surgery. Without this grant, they would
not be able to live productive, healthy lives…. We are thrilled to be able to
help them become the people they need to be.”
The State
Department has updated its policy regarding the issuing of passports that
reflect a person’s current gender. While
in the past documentation of SRS was required, now “you can obtain a full
10-year passport with an updated gender if you have had CLINICAL TREATMENT
determined by your doctor to be appropriate in your case to facilitate gender
transition.” Any licensed physician
familiar with your transition-related treatment can provide a letter. For more details on how to apply for a
passport see the US State Department Foreign Affairs Manual, 7 FAM 300 Appendix
M: Gender Change @ http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/143160.pdf
In an online article in The Hill, “HHS withdraws plan to reconsider coverage of sex-change
operations” by Sam Baker, the Health and Human Services Department has
withdrawn its proposal to reverse an earlier ruling (1981) that sex-change
procedures are experimental and should not be covered by Medicare and Medicaid. This ruling was motivated by an assumption
that the use of taxpayers’ money to fund such procedures would “attract
criticism from Congress.” Initially HHS
invited public comments for the next 30 days on whether to reexamine this
decision. However, I understand this
offer has been rescinded.
An article, “Dispute
on Transgender Rights Unfolds at a Colorado School,” appeared in the NYTimes,
3/18/13. It recounts the story of Coy
Mathis, 6 years old. Born a boy, Coy
identified as a girl and part way through kindergarten her parents requested
that she be treated as one. A few months
into 1st grade, Coy’s parents removed her from school because she
was not allowed to use the girls’ bathroom.
Instead she was offered a gender-neutral facility. A legal battle has ensued “that is likely to
test Colorado’s anti-discrimination law, which expanded protections for
transgender people in 2008.” Stay tuned.
An April 7 article in the New York Times, “When Criminality Becomes Attached to
Wardrobe Choice,” exposed a situation in Queens, N.Y. in which transgender
individuals have been targeted by the police with charges of prostitution. A survey of 300 residents of Jackson Heights
found that “while 28% of straight respondents reported having been stopped by
the police, 54% of gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender respondents reported
this kind of treatment…. Another
component of this is the much-denounced use of condoms as evidence. ‘It can depend on which side of Sixth Avenue
you are standing on in the Village…. If you’re a student carrying condoms,
you’re practicing good public health; if you’re a transgendered person of
color, you’re a prostitute.’”
In brief: A new book, “The Transsexual Scientist, “ by Thomas Bevan, Ph.D. (Amazon
Kindle) is “an autobiography and scientific story of the author’s search for
the causes of transsexualism and transgenderism.”
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