<p>As I said, I am talking about some people I know personally. I don’t think that <em>these particular people</em> have a very realistic idea of what it is to be a biological woman, nor do I observe that that is what they identify with. Of course, this is not true of all trans people. As I said, I think that it is very complex. There is no on/off switch. are infinite variations, and everyone is different.</p>
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No, because at some point you’ll change the character of the institution from being a women’s college. A handful of transgendered students don’t do that yet. In fact, they fit in surprisingly well. You might be surprised how many biologically female students identified themselves as something other than “male” or “female” in my class. If you wanted to exclude all female-born students who would not identify as “female” socially, you would exclude many more students than just the transgendered ones.</p>
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<p>Total cost for one trans woman I know who had GRS just three years ago: $17,000. Highest cost I’ve heard about in the USA for this surgery for trans women: about $25,000.</p>
<p>It’s more for trans men, since the surgery is more complicated.</p>
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<p>I suspect I’ve known far more trans women than you or most others here, and if that’s how anyone thinks prior to transition (not that I’ve ever met anyone who has), they are soon disabused of the notion once they actually start living in the world as women and are perceived as such. And can even get yeast infections, believe it or not! </p>
<p>Nor, the last I heard, did women without periods or uteruses – and there are women who live as girls and women their entire lives without them – suddenly become non-actual women. </p>
<p>It’s one thing to express opinions on whether group insurance coverage is appropriate for this kind of surgery (not that I believe the numbers having it would be more than minuscule, given how long the process generally takes before people have surgery, and given how young one would have to be when beginning the process). It’s another thing entirely to denigrate a group of people already subject to enormous discrimination and rates of violence (including murder) with what amount to generalized personal insults which clearly are not based on any actual personal, medical, or scientific knowledge, and grotesque, obscene comparisons of real people’s genitals to sex toys. It’s another for people who’ve probably never met a trans person to make ipse dixit pronouncements about the alleged “harm” of transition (or transition-related surgeries) without ever having read, I’m sure, a single study about them. The same with comments about lack of medical necessity, and comments failing to recognize that if you’ve known you’re trans your entire life, and still feel that way in college, it’s not going to change. </p>
<p>I would truly love to know how the sex toy comment – and probably half of the other comments here – didn’t violate the TOS. I’ll be reporting a lot of them; we’ll see what happens. Please remember that insulting comments are no less so when directed at an entire group than when directed at a particular member of that group. There do happen to be trans people who are members here, after all!</p>
<p>Clearly, Brown is not alone.</p>
<p>[Transgender</a> Health - UCLGBTIA](<a href=“California Campus LGBTQ Centers: UCLGBTIA”>California Campus LGBTQ Centers: UCLGBTIA)</p>
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<p>Remarkably enough, I’ve heard no reports of ensuing financial disaster, or of legions of trans people having reassignment surgery at these places. (The annual cost of hormones is generally quite minimal.)</p>
<p>From what I’ve been able to determine through a quick Google search, the City of San Francisco has provided insurance coverage for all of this for its employees for the last decade or so. I imagine that San Francisco has more employees than Brown or any of the other listed schools has students. And that their average age is considerably older, so that any trans employees are far more likely to be at the point of having surgery. And yet, the total number of people taking advantage of the surgical coverage has been – again, from what I can tell – no more than one or two people a year. </p>
<p>It’s a rare thing, people – with rarity having nothing to do with medical necessity.</p>
<p>Nobody seemed outraged when a court ruled that breast reduction surgery for adolescent boys with gynecomastia was medically necessary and had to be covered by insurance. Breast reduction surgery for women is generally covered too, so long as one’s physician attests that it’s medically necessary, and not just for “cosmetic” purposes. There are lots of things deemed medically necessary and covered by insurance beyond strictly life-saving procedures. </p>
<p>The medical consensus (confirmed by a number of court rulings) is that transition-related genital surgery is, in fact, medically necessary, and does allow many trans people to function normally in society; the fact that some trans people don’t need it hardly means that nobody needs it. Everybody is an individual, and there’s no single, universally applicable course of treatment for gender dysphoria. The fact remains, however, that social, medical, and/or surgical transition are the only known “cure” for gender dysphoria – and believe me, people have been trying for a hundred years to treat it otherwise, without success! – and the idea that lots of people have surgery or go through hormone treatments and then regret it is a myth. Even if their lives aren’t ideal after transition – often because of continued discrimination against those who are “visibly” trans – most people with trans histories would do it all over again. It’s better than the alternative. </p>
<p>In any event, it really isn’t up to people, in my opinion, to argue that one class of medically necessary procedures should be excluded from coverage because some people personally go ewww and think it’s icky. I think worm therapy and fecal transplants are kind of icky, but I wouldn’t dream of saying that for that reason, they aren’t medically necessary. Medical necessity shouldn’t be up for popular vote based on longstanding societal prejudices.</p>
<p>Thank you, DonnaL.</p>
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<p>Well, if nature didn’t intend it to happen, it’s remarkable how often it does happen. Next time you’re on a beach, take a look around you. Especially at some of the old boys!</p>
<p>PS: Comparing trans people to pedophiles? Nice.</p>
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<p>Boys and men do have minimal breasts and can (rarely) get [breast</a> cancer](<a href=“http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/male-breast-cancer/DS00661]breast”>Male breast cancer - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic) or [url=<a href=“http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=strange-but-true-males-can-lactate&sc=rss]lactate[/url”>http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=strange-but-true-males-can-lactate&sc=rss]lactate[/url</a>].</p>