Philly Facility Pioneers Gender 'Transition' Surgery
by Andrew Clark
EDGE Contributor
Tuesday Jan 15, 2013
http://www.edgeboston.com/news/local/features/140630/philly_facility_pioneers_gender_%E2%80%99transition%E2%80%99_surgeryOne of the more pressing and emotional topics in the fight for LGBT equality is health care and how the community's rights are violated due to this inequality. Hospital visitation rights, joint insurance capabilities and medical discriminatory policies affect LGBT people and their families at the most difficult and upsetting times of their lives.
In the transgender community, such inequities permeate every level of physical and mental health care. For a group of people who rely so heavily on the health care system to assist them in reaching the identity they feel is correct, transgender people rarely receive the treatment they need and, even more rarely, the respect and care they deserve.
Dr. Sherman Leis, a world-renowned surgeon specializing in transgender surgery and the founder of The Philadelphia Center for Transgender Surgery, has recently spoken out on this matter. Dr. Leis described how despite instating anti-discrimination policies, he has encountered many local hospitals not allowing their physicians to operate on transgender patients due to a lack of training and education in treating them.
