Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Oprah’s interest piqued by Alta.’s sex-change funding decision

Edmonton Journal, Canada
Oprah’s interest piqued by Alta.’s sex-change funding decision
By Jodie Sinnema, Edmonton Journal

April 13, 2009

EDMONTON — The Alberta government’s decision to stop funding
sex-change surgery has attracted the attention of the Oprah Winfrey
Show.

Edmonton resident Sarah King, who’s hoping to get the surgery next
year in Montreal, said she was contacted through e-mail by the popular
U.S. talk show when it got word Alberta was cutting funding.

A message from Harpo Studios in Chicago said the show wasn’t doing a
story now, but would contact her for an interview if it does a segment
on transsexuals in the future.

Kris Wells, a researcher at the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies
and Services at the University of Alberta, said if Oprah tells her
audience about the funding cuts, Alberta’s $25-million attempt to
boost its oilsands-tainted image would be a waste.

“Oprah would undo the reputation of Alberta,” Wells said. “Alberta is
going to look like one of the most fundamental jurisdictions in the
world.”

Meanwhile, transgender Albertans are ramping up efforts to reverse the
government’s decision to stop paying for the surgery.

More than 30 people are expected to crowd question period at the
provincial legislature in Edmonton on Tuesday, with some planning to
file human-rights complaints en masse Wednesday morning.

“It’s important to show people that we are far different from the
assumptions that are made quite often,” said Mercedes Allen, a
Calgarian who was scheduled to have a sex-change operation in August,
before Alberta Health and Wellness stopped paying for the procedures,
which cost $18,000 to $70,000, as part of its 2009 budget.

“People expect us to be fringe and rabble and such, and that’s not the
case. Many of us are professional people, and I think the public needs
to see that.”

To that end, Allen said, the group won’t be holding signs or chanting
on the legislature steps. Instead, they are crowding question period
to show politicians the surgery is not cosmetic, but a medical
necessity for those who believe they were born in the wrong body and
are the wrong sex.

Allen said she hopes an official human-rights complaint won’t be
necessary if the government reinstates funding.

“We would rather not see the human-rights issues go ahead, because
then it becomes an expensive legal issue, and a lot of us have seen
that happen with the Delwin Vriend case,” Allen said, referring to the
landmark gay-rights case that ended up in the Supreme Court.

“I’m an Alberta and a taxpayer, too. I would rather not go down that route.”

But Allen said she will file a complaint, if necessary. A similar
human-rights complaint in Ontario forced the government to reinstate
funding for the surgery, 10 years after the province delisted it.

“There stands to be a lot of people who stand to lose a lot
financially with the delisting,” said King, who’s meeting with lawyers
to discuss filing a class-action lawsuit against the Alberta
government. Even if the government decides to change its budget
decision, King said she still wants to file an injunction preventing
the government from ever delisting the service again.

Wells said some people think the government delisted the surgery as a
way to test the ground for further delisting — and has been surprised
by the negative, vocal response.

“A lot of people are speculating that this is part of the government’s
Machiavellian plan to throw this particular issue out there as a
smokescreen, one they knew would be controversial and will detract
attention from other cuts,” Wells said.

“There are some who believe this is just one tactic by the current
government to start a wholesale initiative for delisting health-care
services. Now, when it’s targeting one vulnerable community and the
other communities don’t speak out, which will be next?”

Laurie Blakeman, the Liberal representative for Edmonton Centre, said
she thinks the government’s decision to cut the program funding was
based on ideology, and not on the need to tighten belts.

“They just don’t like and support this community, so they’re just
going to punish them,” said Blakeman.

“It is bigger than the transgender community. If there is any one
thing that can make a difference, it’s that kind of effort from the
community to pressure the government, because it does seem to be the
one thing they respond to: that real push back from the public on a
given issue.”

Edmonton Journal

jsinnema@thejournal.canwest.com

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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Oprah+interest+piqued+Alta+change+funding+decision/1492407/story.html

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