Province retreats on sex changes

Edmonton Sun, Canada
Wed, April 15, 2009
Province retreats on sex changes

By KERRY DIOTTE, LEGISLATURE BUREAU CHIEF

The province is bending a bit on cancelling gender-bender surgery.

Alberta Health Minister Ron Liepert said yesterday the province won't
snip sex-change operations out of this year's budget to save $700,000
as previously announced.

Liepert announced that in question period as more than two dozen
transsexuals and their supporters watched from the public gallery.

The minister told the House 26 Albertans are now "in the program" and
their surgery will be covered.

A further 20 people who hadn't been scheduled for surgery but were on
a waiting list for funding will now also be paid for, but the
procedure won't be funded next fiscal year, he indicated.

Health ministry spokesman John Tuckwell says that means the government
will have to come up with extra cash in the soon-to-be-passed 2009-10
budget to pay for the sex-change operations that can cost between
$18,000 and $70,000 and are performed in Montreal.

Opposition MLAs accused the government of trying to save money by
picking on a small minority group that's been told by physicians their
surgery is medically necessary. But Liepert said his ministry had to
make tough choices.

TOUGH DECISIONS

"This was not based on medical decisions," said Liepert. "This was
based on a number of programs we had to make ... There were some very
tough decisions that had to be made, everything from cancelling some
programs around youth suicide prevention to programs around certain
surgeries."

Edmonton Centre Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman argued the province will
likely waste more cash than it will save by chopping the sex-change
procedure from next year's budget because government lawyers will have
to defend human rights challenges.
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Transsexuals have vowed to file numerous complaints as early as today
to the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission.

HUMAN RIGHTS

A human rights challenge in Ontario saw that province forced to
reinstate coverage of sex-change operations.

Edmonton-Strathcona NDP MLA Rachel Notley says Alberta will come off
as looking like rednecks nationally because it cancelled funding for
sex changes to save a small amount of money. That's exactly the
opposite of a recent rebranding program that boasts that Alberta is
open and tolerant, she said.

"This is an attack on the most vulnerable," Notley told Sun Media.
Because of the government's decision, "we will continue to look like a
backward group of folks to the rest of the country ... That's not how
Albertans are."

Premier Ed Stelmach said it was "fair and reasonable," that Liepert
extend the sex-change operation program for one year.

Axcella Zelensky said she already had her publicly funded operation in
January but was at the legislature to fight to see others continue to
have access to publicly funded sex changes.

"I was actually planning in the next little while to send a thank-you
card to the government, but I'm not sure whether I can anymore," she
told Sun Media.

Surgeries are a necessity, she said. "We never chose to be born into
the wrong body."

KERRY.DIOTTE@SUNMEDIA.CA
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http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2009/04/15/9116406-sun.html