Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Alberta Finance Minister: "I Didn't Know We Covered That"

Bilerico, USA
Alberta Finance Minister: "I Didn't Know We Covered That"

Filed by: Mercedes Allen
April 13, 2009 3:00 PM

When Finance Minister Iris Evans discussed the Province's decision to
delist Gender Reassignment Surgery

(GRS) on the day after the budget was handed down, she said, "I didn't
even know we covered that." Reportedly, there was a look of hate in
her eyes as she said it (I didn't see the report, but have heard this
from many in the trans community who did), offset by that bright
bubblegum pink power suit of hers.

Health Minister Ron Liepert has said that we were not targeted for
"moral" (as defined by conservative Christians) reasons. And yet in a
budget where spending was increased, and where the ministries
reportedly went through everything line-by-line with the notable
casualties in health funding being essentially chiropractic and GRS
coverage, even our detractors see through that statement. Also notable
was the fact that the cut was made without consulting with the
Province's lead GID specialist, in order to be aware of any negative
ramifications, learn of any concerns there might be about how it
affects our community -- he'd been left completely unaware of what was
to come.

The Conservatives later said that the combined total cut from
chiropractic and GRS coverage was being used to provide a facility
and/or services for seniors, a disadvantaged portion of our society
(that they also chose to cut drug benefits for). Now, I'm not the kind
of person who likes to argue who is most marginalized, and certainly
support programs for seniors (and strongly oppose their drug cuts),
but to make it sound like we're a privileged and affluent subset of
society that doesn't need medical care support is absurd.

Alberta has gone down this road before, when it chose to try to thwart
Delwin Vriend's case against the King's College, in the early 1990s.
This led to a 6-year action against the Province that went to the
Supreme Court of Canada, resulted in overwhelming embarrassment and
expense, and led to the ruling that established Human Rights
protections across the nation on the basis of sexual orientation.
Other provinces have also gone down this road specifically regarding
GRS: British Columbia had delisted it and later restored it due to
pressure, and last year Ontario too restored it on the heels of a
Human Rights ruling and in the face of more to come. In classic
fashion, the Conservatives are now saying they were unaware of the
Ontario history. Of course, we can never assume anything, but it
doesn't take a lot of effort to see that Albertans are being taken
down another bad path.

I have faith in Alberta. The people, that is -- not so much the
government. Albertans are business-minded and fiscally conservative,
which is why they've overwhelmingly voted in Conservative
representatives for decades. But many, especially in the larger
population centres, are socially progressive as well. I like to call
them the "closet moderates." Afraid of being tagged "liberal,"
"socialist" and all of that, they have tended to be pretty silent,
allowing the "redneck Little Texas" image to persist. But in the face
of a really bad choice like this, I hope, that they may spread the
word a little, and tell their MLAs that they really don't want this
fight. I'm an Albertan and a taxpayer as well, and I really don't want
this fight either -- but with something that is a medical necessity
and a matter of life and death for some, I can't not fight, either.

That is something that Albertans (and most of North American society)
don't understand, yet. GRS is not a cosmetic procedure. We don't wake
up one day and decide that it would be cool to alienate our family,
lose our spouses and children, get fired from our jobs, all so that we
can be thought of as strange by society. We do it because there is a
serious and present need, one which often requires GRS for closure.
The information is there for them if they'd like to develop a better
understanding of the real story. I hope enough are willing to listen.

In the meantime, people are not being silent. On Tuesday, as the
Provincial government sits down to debate the budget, a number of
people will be attending in silent but visible protest. There will
also be information to hand out about who we are and why GRS is a
medical necessity. On Wednesday, several of us in both Edmonton and
Calgary will be filing Human Rights complaints en masse.

There has long been this feeling that in doing advocacy work for
transsexuals was a risky business -- that if word went out about the
fact that the Province paid for GRS, the public outrage would have it
taken away in a second. Any attempt to organize needed to be sabotaged
or shouted down at all costs. The advocates were the enemy.
Consequently, when the delisting occurred last week (only a week after
controversy bubbled up regarding the Province's refusal to consider
trans inclusion in changes being made to the Human Rights Commission),
it caught us in a state of being satellite activists, working
independently, sometimes against each other, sometimes afraid that our
fights to achieve might in the end cost more than it was worth. People
walked on eggshells.

That is changing. Stay tuned.

Crossposted to The Bilerico Project and available to Pam's House Blend

Filed under: Health issues | International | Transgender & Intersex

Tags: alberto | canada | grs | health care | medical coverage |
surgery | transgender | transsexual

http://www.bilerico.com/2009/04/alberta_finance_minister_i_didnt_know_we.php

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