Gender is Between Your Ears Not You Legs

8/14/2019 Gender is Between Your Ears Not You Legs

1/21

A Look at the Social and Financial aspects ofTransgender Healthcare in America&How the Trans Community is Portrayed onScreen

By Megan Milano


2/21

Personal experience

brought me toresearch the topicfurtherHow much do youthink these breastscost?


3/21

A transgender individual is a person with a genderidentity which is inconsistent with his or herbiological anatomy

Cisgender is its antonym

Often associated or mistaken with Transsexual,Intersex and Transvestite

FTM, MTF, HRT GID and SRS


4/21

Unlike other public health concerns, this group isnot characterized by race or religious creed, itinclude all races and all beliefs, and social classes-needs to be more focus cause there is more of apopulation to cover.

Trans people face more health care risks due toissues not typically seen on surface and often notacknowledged

Trans persons are also at risk for health factors

that are not exclusionary to the rest of thepopulation; problem that are not directly relates tosexual orientation or gender identity such aalcoholism, obesity, drug use, domestic violence.


5/21

It is integral to these arguments to specify that GIDreform is not a question of fewer stigmas versus

improved SRS access; it is a question ofless stigma andimproved SRS access.Those for

To gain financial entitlement and support for surgeries,therapy, hormones; as opposed to resorting to thestreets.

Those against Advocates insist the diagnosis reinforces detrimental

stereotypes; The result is that a larger amount of peoplewho are submitted by the medical community asdiagnosis of psychosexual disorder, risk disastrouseffects of stigma and loss of civil liberties.


6/21

Members of the Trans community must submitthemselves to the medical community asdisordered and tests

Those who wish for surgery; GID stipulates RealLife Tests. There is surprisingly little empiricalevidence real life tests is either a necessary or asufficient condition for achieving favorable

outcomes after SRS


7/21

Credit: Transhealth.com stats and FAQs 2009

Judith Butler describes Double Bind ofbinary system in American HealthcarePrivate health insurance companies willnot pay for services that they understandstand only to be necessary for females ifthey are already paying for services thatthey understand are only necessary formales, or vice versa One FTM checkedthe male box and later developed breastcancer in one of her breasts. His insurancepolicy would not pay for a doublemastectomy because there was only

cancer in one breast, and they viewedthats paying for both would be allowing acosmetic or gender stipulated surgery.Basically, the patient who was battlingcancer has to either fork over the moneyfor the other breast to be removed, orpray to God to get cancer in the other

breast.


8/21

Procedures range from altering secondary sex characteristics aswell as their reproductive organs. Surgeries for FTM persons may include a hysterectomy

(removal of the uterus), ring metoidioplasty (rearrangementof the urethra so that standing urination is possible through a

small phallus), testicular implants, and phalloplasty (creationof a penis from skin on another part of the body, such as theforearm).

Surgeries for MTF persons may include breast augmentation,genital surgery (creation of a vagina, labia and clitoris), and

tracheal shave (reduction of the thyroid cartilage to minimizethe adams apple). Trans persons may want all or none ofthese surgeries and may still identity as Trans person,


9/21

Insensitivity and discrimination felt by medical staffis sited as one of the main reason trans persons donot continue to seek or stay in treatment.

The Transgender Law Centerhas taken manycomplaints from transgender people who havebeen harassed and mistreated by medicalproviders. Ill informed providers will tell theirpatients that they find them disgusting or

inappropriately insist on seeing their patientsgenitals. Providers will not ask medically necessaryquestions or will tell their patients that theydeserve the illness that they are experiencing.


10/21

Robert Eads, a female tomale trans person whodeveloped ovarian cancer,was denied treatment byover twenty doctors who

did not approve of him andhis trans body.

The film follows Eadsthrough the last year of hislife while battling ovarian

cancer. "Southern Comfort"won the Grand Jury Prizefor documentaries at the2001 Sundance FilmFestival.

Robert Eads Story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6JIWD2DNyYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6JIWD2DNyY


11/21

The medias role in how America sees this invisiblepopulation is crucial This is relatively young topic (roughly 36 plus years in DSM) and

has had minor coverage in American media, some of which doesnot tend to convey a positive view. Many themes are represented

of illness, rejections and shame; which are all quite oftenincorporated regularly in a life faced with adversity.

Characters typically shown as scandalous, abnormal andproblematic.

Paris Is Burning(1990) a documentary representing poor, black

and Hispanic, gay male and transsexual ball walkers. Boys Dont Cry(1999) the story of a young, white female-to-

male transsexual named Brandon Teena. Both are based on reallife, the former a documentary and the latter a re- creations.


12/21

Paris is Burningdepicts the ballculture of 1980s Harlem, anotherwise invisible sub culture tothe white masses. Director JennieLivingston (a white woman) putsthe

viewer in the cross-dressing hotseat; one many Americans have notbeen in before. To a degree, webecome entrenched by thegrandiosity of the characters such

as Venus Xtravaganza, the teenagedtranssexual who longed to be aspoiled white rich girl.


13/21

It is the interviewees ofParisthatare portrayed as wanting thewhite, rich dream; while givingminimal attention to their

hopelessly eminent povertystatus. Also the movie onlymentions the prevalence of AIDSwithin the community (it haskilled a number of the

interviewees since thedocumentary debuted), or theoppression that drives them tohave the balls in the first place.


14/21

Boys Dont Crythat the filmdeliberately opens up multiplesites of potential identificationfor the audience: the transsexualBrandon, whom women adore asthe best boyfriend they ever

had, is both a woman playing amans role and an idealizedheterosexual man; Lana is aheterosexual woman whosedesire transcends gender.

The audience gets to see the

main character as a womannamed Brandon who s truly afemale lesbian, is just a lesbianwho happens to put a sock in herpants.


15/21

Gender, the film implies, isultimately about the body, notabout social roles; those whotries to hide their true bodymakes will inevitably havetheir true selves forciblyrevealed. The movie plays on

social roles even in thetoughest of scenes. In the midst of Brandons rape,

however, there is ambiguity intheir treatment of Brandonafterward calling him littlebuddy as they simultaneouslythreaten to kill him if he tellsanyone. The movie conveysthe notion of rape as much apunishment handed down forthe faade of Brandan Teena.


16/21

Chaz Bono put a new spin onthings; he was not trying to besomething he wasnt; all his lifeshe was trying to cope withbeing something he never feltwas right for him. He was donewith faking, casting away the

female facade. Chaz started hisprocess of transitioning in 2009and is expected to be complete,(SRS included) by 2010.

It is Chazs hopes that hisbroadcasting of his genderdevelopment will bring attentionto LGBT causes and help changethe worlds view of the LGBTcommunity. People willundoubtedly give kudos for thedual courageous decision to firsttransition, but to also to make itpublic.

Chaz Bono on GMA
http://blog.seattlepi.com/stepforward/archives/185935.asp?from=blog_last3http://blog.seattlepi.com/stepforward/archives/185935.asp?from=blog_last3http://blog.seattlepi.com/stepforward/archives/185935.asp?from=blog_last3http://blog.seattlepi.com/stepforward/archives/185935.asp?from=blog_last3


17/21

The mainstream media has failedto display the contrastingindividual story of someonetransitioning who does not haveaccess to the resources thatsomeone ofChazs financial

status may have. As we know, people who

transition experience familyrejection and social stigma thatmakes education andemployment very difficult for

many of them; an issueexacerbated when you do nothave the luxury of a publicist toremind people what pronoun touse when describing them.


18/21

Mara Keisling, executive director of the Washington-based National Center for Transgender Equalitylamentin an CNN interview that the medias illegitimate focuson Chazs medical/anatomical status as backward andmisplaced.

"The whole media fixation on surgery is kind ofmisplaced," she said. "Almost no transgender peopleever have surgery. We don't have any idea how manydo."(CNN,2009) The media also neglects to present trans persons who

experience rejection from their families, those personsare more likely to have mental health problems later inlife, while those who experience acceptance have muchbetter outcomes. Most are focused on survival, notgetting beat up when trying to use a public restroom orharassed in other communal venues.


19/21

Butler mentions in chapter four Undoing Gender,Insurance companies demean the notion of libertywhen they distinguish between mastectomies thatare medically necessitated and those that

constitute elective surgery Why should Trans person have to choose? Why

should they need referrals? I dont need referralswhen I want breast augmentation, unlike my friendmentioned earlier.


20/21

Gender neutral bathrooms are an easy stepthat can really have a positive effect.

On patient intake forms, leaving a blankspace after the question on gender oroffering a transgender option. Silence is theworst form of ignorance

Using gender neutral language (such as

partner) when asking about a patientssexual or relationship history allowsindividuals to be more open about their lives.


21/21

It would be remiss to notmention that the changeyou want to see in this world starts with you. Whatyou as an individual can do many things to helpspread acceptance and understanding.

Advocate for increased/ better access to health care,

both private and public coverage. Help compile morecohesive input from members of the Transcommunity; increase awareness in options andeducation.

Promote Trans- related groups/projects that work

and research better heath care practices. Supportinitiatives that work to maximize awareness on Transissues physical and psychological recourses.

Documents

Gender is Between Your Ears Not You Legs