Plea for better trans surgery coverage

Plea for better trans surgery coverage

The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is encouraging trans activists behind a wave of online petitions calling for improved Medicare coverage of sex reassignment surgery, to focus on lobbying the federal health minister.

Gold Coast trans activist Michelle Diamond, who’s behind one of the more popular Change.org petitions pushing for better coverage, had been calling on the AHRC to take up the cause in light of a perceived emphasis on legal rights rather than associated medical issues.

“Psychiatric care and medications often do very little for a person living with mismatched genitals,” Diamond said.

“Some of these people have to confront these issues and endure extreme discomfort every time they use a toilet, bathroom or get dressed.

“Sex reassignment surgery is much more than just being cosmetic surgery and has more of an impact on a transsexual person’s life. It is highly regarded as life-saving surgery by medical professionals around the world.”

The AHRC, which produced the Sex Files gender diversity report in March 2009, said it had tried to draw attention to the medical, as well as legal, issues affecting the trans community in its talks with the federal Government.

“While the focus of the Sex Files report was specifically the examination of legal identity, the need for gender reassignment surgery to be covered by Medicare was also raised with us in consultations of the sex and gender diversity project at the time, as were a range of other health concerns,” a policy unit representative said.

“In the Sex Files report, we explained how the Commission did not have an opportunity to investigate these matters further in the report. However, we raised them with the federal Minister for
Health and recommended that the Australian Health Ministers’ Conference consider them.

“We will continue to raise human rights issues for sex and gender diverse people with the federal Government at the right opportunity.”

The AHRC said it had received many petitions similar to Diamond’s and encouraged supporters of better Medicare funding for sex reassignment surgery to raise the issue directly with the current health minister and federal Government representatives, as they were responsible for deciding policy for Medicare reimbursements.

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11 responses to “Plea for better trans surgery coverage”

  1. actually no Meldody we are on it, we sight the recent Argentinian Decision reached through depathologisation of trans people. So Melody we do know what we are talking about. We have been around for years now. What you been here for 5 minutes and expect a miracle. Your pre-emptiveness is helping no one. We have always had the view to be inclusive and achieve real outcomes. You undermine the hard work of good people for what seems to be egocentric reasons. The only reason you are not still part of TMA is because you tried to take over. We are a community and we do things with a sense of community. We dont just serve individual needs. There is no room in the business of activism for control freaks.

  2. Indi, I am not your spokesperson and I never professed to be.

    The only person jumping the gun right now is yourself and other members of Trans Menace Australia in assuming we are overlooking something when we haven’t. The truth is we have not even started our main campaign yet and what you have been witnessing is the warm up round to get everyone talking about the health & well being of the community which is what I set out to do when I starting this national trans health & well being campaign?

    So far, so good because we are no recruiting more allies from within the LGBT community and other groups who are willing to start advocating on our behalf.

    However we don’t want any other groups running off half cocked without considering the best ways to address these issues and hijacking our agenda either.

    The reason I was able to get it off the ground and gained so much support so quickly was because I have been listened to many other people in the community including service providers first and that is why many support me now. I have many contacts and it has been all about involving the right people including doctors. Now I don’t profess to understand everyone’s issues but I sure would like to.

    People need to realise that I am human to and I need to find a way in order to do that. Communication is a very important issue and one of the biggest issues affecting the community. This community is so splintered and fractured with and it is even harder to communicate with people refusing to speak to other people because of some interpersonal political issues. It is hard to communicate effectively in any group debate or discussion when so many people being so rude and disrespectful and simply cannot agree to disagree.

    I see a number of groups who have organised meetings & surveys but funny thing is we don’t often hear about them until they are too late, or they have been send out to just a select few people. Or they are too broad and general and cover issues affecting the whole LGBTI community rather than addressing our specific issues. So are these LGBT NGOs really listening to us or focused their own agendas?

    We need ADVOCACY, NOT ACTIVISM for the trans community and I have many reasons why I say this. Trans Activism is a total failure.

    The community is very splintered and fractured and your group TMA can’t claim to be a fair representation of the community because there has been far too much arguing, personal attacks & name calling & other bullying and interpersonal political garbage for a few people I know no longer want to be involved with.

    Emotions are high in a community that as you know is full of dysfunctional and unstable people who are in need of urgent help. And this was something I addressed when I asked Shelley Argent to represent our group as a spokesperson. I told her it was difficult for me to write or speak without bring my personal emotions into this campaign. I am happy to talk about my personal issues if I am asked to, but I know this is not all about me.

    So we need to find ways to advocate & give the community a voice but without all the conflict and interpersonal political drama. We need to give the community a voice that is unbiased and fair, and very representative of the community at an individual, state and federal level and I have just the means and the ability to do that.

    A group of us are planning to develop a National Sex & Gender Diverse Health & Well Being Survey with the input of community, service providers & NGOs. This will be a multi-layered survey that will gather demographic statistical data into the multitude of gender identities & issues affecting the health & well being of the community at an individual, state and federal levels.

    But first everyone will have an opportunity to be be part the developmental process for this type of a survey which will also be peer reviewed before it finally goes live. Many people I know are sick of going in circles and believe need solid data and real facts then we will all have a real voice.

    You will no doubt hear more about this project through social media networks soon.

  3. TY Nikola, I dont disagree with all of what melody is saying or doing I was hoping she wouldn’t go off half cocked on these complex issues as there needs to be more community consultation and we do have the QLD Conference in August where we had earmarked to nut out someone of these issues with Health professionals and WPATH people. Simply obtaining full Medicare cover wont fix our problems, not even close. There are better ways to approach this with out confusing cis folk (they are already confused). Yes i remember the 90’s war lol. I was there. What Melody has done is jump the gun and I would even go as far to say this is an ego based reaction in regards to issues with the QLD Conference and her involvement or non involvment “as it were”. We are a diverse community, we need to approach everything we do with in a holistic sense. It may appear that Melody is a spokes person and or is representing our community but this isnt necessarily the case at all. Many people are very annoyed with what she is doing and her actions could lead to more red herrings and derail our struggle putting us back years.

  4. Hasn’t been a trans war since the mid-90’s …

    Not a very good time to start I reckon one with many conservative State Governments and a potential train-wreck of a conservative national one coming up.

    I’d be interested to know whether any other whether any others reading this besides the gender diverse can remember any other minority group being as fractured as the trans community.

    It’s even hard to write trans* without knowing that you’ll get some splinter group offside for using that label …

    For the record I agree with some of what Indi has written and some of what Melody has.

  5. No Indi, it is you who is wrong with your assumptions. We do consider all the implications and I am also talking to service providers INCLUDING DOCTORS about all the legal issues which you also obviously have no sense of reality about.

    You claim to know-it-all, but overlook a very simple fact that DSM is a an American document and as Australians we have no legal jurisdiction to change it even though Australian psychiatrists use it as a point of reference.

    Trying to change the DSM is a waste of perfectly good energy because you won’t get anywhere being here in Australia. If this is so important, then why not move to the US if you want to fight it?

    In the meantime Indi need to focus on issues closer to home that can actually help people and save lives. So until you give up your interpersonal political agenda, I don’t think you have any chance, especially compared to our agenda which is a human rights based agenda that focuses exclusively on the health & well being of the community.

    You will get the opportunity to have a voice and provide feedback about your own personal issues and service providers and the lack of, who look after you. So stop trying to run me and many other people down like Michelle who support my initiatives because there are many more people who support me on this than you realise.

  6. I am sorry Melody but you are once again going at it like a bull at a gate and have failed to understand the deeper implications.

    so sad u choose to disrespect and have so little faith in people who do know what they are talking about.

    You are way out of your depth again. shakes head.

  7. Indi,

    Don’t you get it yet hun? Waging any sort of political campaign like your group Trans Menace Australia does will not win the hearts and minds of Australians.

    Banging on drums, staging sit ins will do nothing but to turn people against our community and that is why our group has a carefully orchestrated media campaign we have launched. This is only phase one of this campaign and Michelle Diamond and her article is very much a part of our campaign.

    TransCare Australia is committed & focused on important human rights and basic health care issues that need to be addressed that will save lives. If your campaign is focused on the DSM and the “depathologisation” that is fair enough, but go and join forces with those action groups who have that type of agenda and stop trying to hijack our agenda in any way you can.

    What we have to be careful about, some people have no problems and have found the support of Monash & Dr Lyons in SA helpful, even though they always don’t agree with their ultra conservative policies.

    People need to consider the legal implications and the litigation aspects of any campaign to tackle these issues.

    If someone representing a group makes slanderous and defamatory comments about such service providers it will do nothing but anger many people in the trans community who rely and are getting help from those providers who could launch legal action. So someone or a group could get sued if a person is seen as representing a group is running a smeer campaign.

    The TransCare Australia Heath Action Group flaty refuses to engage in this style of politics to address key issues.

    TransCare Australia is committed to giving every single Australian a voice and to tackle with issues at a state level while the national collective tackles with issues at Federal Level.

    More will be revealed about how you can partake in this initiative soon.

  8. Why is that I will have to go to another country that doesn’t speak English to gain surgery at an affordable price but where the surgeons are also more skilled in this field why should I have to go to a place and have surgery stay in a hospital bed for 3 days before getting moved to a hotel room to further recuperate for a month all in a non English speaking nation…..to get surgery here is ridiculous in price not covered by Medicare or private health insurance yet is understood to be a medical condition why aren’t we counted as citizens with health issues that need medical treatment not just mental cases?? I vote I was born here I have always paid taxes and been gainfully employed why aren’t my medical needs being addressed as any other citizens would be ?

  9. I agree we need adequate Medicare provision in Australia for the TIGD communities, thats a given. The problem we have goes much deeper though. If we were to achieve these goals we still face the issue of the “private healthcare gap” and we would still be looking at a small rebate and facing problems with equal employment, housing and a host of other very problematic issues. We also don’t have any surgeons and Thai surgeons aren’t about to undermine their industry by coming here to give away all their tricks.
    What we need to be aiming for is “depathologisation” as in removing us from the DSM. The current WPath Standards of Care has improved much in our favour however it still leaves us in the mental health paradigm which is our key issue. We need a system that involves an informed consent model that excludes the practice of gatekeeping in its traditional form.

    Depathologisation

    http://www.lgbt-ep.eu/tag/depathologisation/

    I would like to see all of these things happen; it’s insane that in 2012 we have to live this way.