Alberta government facing human rights complaint over sex change funding

Prince George Citizen, Canada
Alberta government facing human rights complaint over sex change funding
Written by Jim Macdonald, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Tuesday, 14 April 2009

EDMONTON - A battle in Alberta over funding for sex change operations
took a new twist Tuesday with a surprise announcement that the
province will fund 48 of the surgeries before cutting off government
funding.

Health Minister Ron Liepert caught about a dozen transsexual
protesters off guard when he announced that he didn't think it was
fair to strand people who had been preparing for years to have a sex
change.

So 28 people who are in varying stages of the sex change procedure
will get funding to finish their surgeries, while 20 others who have
been paying for hormone treatments in advance of the surgery will also
get government funding, said Liepert.

"It would not be right for us to say, 'Well, you spent all this money,
but we're now going to change the rules,"' the minister later told
reporters.

Jamie-Lynn Garvin, 47, who has been involved in the sex change process
for more than three years, was shocked by the minister's announcement.

"It's a $40,000 announcement for me," said Garvin. "But I've heard a
lot of things come out of politicians' mouths and I don't know if this
is true or not."

But Liepert's motives were being interpreted in a very different light
by a group preparing to file a human rights complaint Wednesday in
hopes of blocking the decision in the recent Alberta budget to end
funding for sex changes.

Jordenne Prescott said the Ontario government's 1998 decision to
eliminate funding for sex changes was overturned by the province's
human rights commission.

They were hoping to use this as a precedent in the Alberta human
rights case. But a key factor in the Ontario ruling was the fact that
people who had been preparing for a sex change were left stranded.

Liepert has now "grandfathered" most Albertans waiting for sex change
procedures, so those behind the Alberta human rights complaint may no
longer be able to use the Ontario ruling as a precedent.

"Essentially, it was a very smart move on his part," said Prescott,
who is among those waiting for a sex change. "It does not gut the
complaint entirely, though."

Kristopher Wells, a researcher with the Institute for Sexual
Minorities Studies and Services at the University of Alberta, said the
complaint will now argue that Alberta's funding cut is simply
discriminatory.

"People in the community may also seek a civil injunction against the
government until the courts rule whether this was a discriminatory
action or not," said Wells.

There has also been talk in Alberta's transgendered community of a
class-action lawsuit claiming damages for the lost government funding,
he said.

Liepert explained that he decided to approve additional sex-change
funding after hearing media reports about the impact the cut would
have on people who have spent years preparing for the procedure.

"That decision seemed to be the right one to make and I made it today," he said.

But the minister could not say how much these additional surgeries
would cost, but the price of a sex change usually ranges from $17,000
to $70,000.

http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/20090414186735/wire/national-news/alberta-government-facing-human-rights-complaint-over-sex-change-funding.html

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

For the letter writing campaign

Here is the contact information for the main players. Blackett and Evans may not be directly involved, but they are still involved

Contact Information for Premier Ed Stelmach (PC)

MLA for Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville Ed Stelmach

Legislature Office
307 Legislature Building
10800 97 Avenue
Edmonton, AB
Canada T5K 2B6
Phone: (780) 427-2251
Fax: (780) 427-1349

Vegreville
Box 451
4945 - 51 Avenue
Vegreville, AB
Canada T9C 1R6
Phone: (780) 632-6840
Fax: (780) 632-6888
fortsaskatchewan.vegreville@assembly.ab.ca

Fort Saskatchewan
9925B 104 Street
Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Canada T8L 2E7
Phone: (780) 992-6560
Fax: (780) 992-6562
Contact the Premier

Contact Information for Honourable Lindsay Blackett (PC) He is the Minister of Culture and Community Spirit.

MLA for Calgary-North West Lindsay Blackett

Legislature Office
#418 Legislature Building
10800 97 Avenue
Edmonton, AB
Canada T5K 2B6
Phone: (780) 422-3559
Fax: (780) 427-7729

Constituency Office
#29, 735 Ranchlands Blvd. NW
Calgary, AB
Canada T3G 3A9
Phone: (403) 216-5444
Fax: (403) 216-5442
calgary.northwest@assembly.ab.ca


Contact Information for Honourable Ronald Liepert (PC) Minister of Health and Welness

MLA for Calgary-West Ronald Liepert

Legislature Office
#323 Legislature Building
10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton, AB
Canada T5K 2B6
Phone: (780) 427-3665
Fax: (780) 415-0961

Constituency Office
#2, 5555 Strathcona Hill SW
Calgary, AB
Canada T3H 1S2
Phone: (403) 216-5439
Fax: (403) 216-5441
calgary.west@assembly.ab.ca

Contact Information for Honourable Iris Evans (PC) Minister of Finance and Enterprise

MLA for Sherwood Park Iris Evans

Legislature Office
#208 Legislature Building
10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton, AB
Canada T5K 2B6
Phone: (780) 427-8809
Fax: (780) 427-5543
Constituency Offices

Constituency Office
#116B, 937 Fir Street
Sherwood Park, AB
Canada T8A 4N6
Phone: (780) 417-4747
Fax: (780) 417-4748
sherwood.park@assembly.ab.ca

The Cracked Crystal Ball II, Canada

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Transsexuals In Alberta To Bear The Brunt of Liepert's Mendacity

Apparently, in Alberta, being a transsexual also means that it's your
fault that the "Health Superboard" is in the hole to the tune of a
little over $1 billion dollars for fiscal 2008.

Calgary Herald
:

Today's budget also eliminates "gender reassignment" surgery,
meaning it will no longer pay for Albertans to have sex change
operations, saving the system about $700,000 a year.

The government hasn't simply reduced the number of procedures that
they pay for, or the proportion that they will pay. No, in this case,
they have axed it outright. This puts a lot of people into really
awkward straights. Not all transsexuals have the kind of professional
income that would allow them to pay that cost out of their own pocket
- in fact relatively few do.

Similarly, I have to wonder at the long term costs of yanking funding
for chiropractic care. Who is going to be most affected by this?
Seniors, who are not only on fixed incomes, but for whom chiropractic
care is often a vital relief from chronic back problems.

Then we find Liepert bragging about this:

The province's superboard received a modest increase in funding of
about $550 million, bringing its budget to $7.7 billion.

"We are maintaining our spending from last year and are also able
to give Alberta Health Services an increase," said Health Minister Ron
Liepert, in a statement.

Think about this, while cutting $700,000 (less than 1% of the Health
"Superboard" budget), the Alberta government brags about adding
funding. Typical Conservative policy - when times get tough, attack
the people who can do the least about it.

Posted by MgS at 4/07/2009 05:02:00 PM

Labels: Alberta, Health Care, Liepert, Mental Health, Transsexuals

http://crystalgaze2.blogspot.com/2009/04/transsexuals-in-alberta-to-bear-brunt.html