Wed Mar 07, 2012 at 10:42 AM PST
Why "Sex Change" Surgery is Medically Necessary, Revisited
by DentedBlue
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/07/1072072/-Why-Sex-Change-Surgery-is-Medically-Necessary-Revisited?via=recentSandra Fluke -- the Georgetown University law student and women's rights activist who was excluded from the congressional hearing on access to contraception and then was labelled a "slut," "whore" and more by Rush Limbaugh following her talk to Democratic members of the House of Representatives -- is now being characterized as "a liberal activist pushing some rather radical ideas" for advocacy she has done for health care coverage of genital reassignment surgery for transsexual men and women... as if that would somehow make the epithets acceptable.
I wrote about this in 2009, but it's worth repeating. Because Fluke's position on that subject is not a "radical liberal idea," but rather the prevailing position of the medical establishment. Here's why.
Popular opinion has it that Gender Reassignment Surgery (GRS, often popularly nicknamed "sex change surgery") is a cosmetic issue and motivated by a simple "want" to be female or male, by someone who was not born as such. However, extensive medical research into transsexuality dating as far back as the 1920s and continuing through modern studies have demonstrated otherwise, and consequently, medical standards of care have included GRS as a necessary procedure for decades. In order to understand this, people will honestly need to put aside preconceptions for a moment -- and also realize at the same time that most transsexuals would rather see a health system in which preventative and quality-of-life treatments were uniformly covered, rather than one in which someone's eye surgery or tendon issues are not, thus creating fighting amongst people in simultaneous need.
