Ontario Law Needs Trans-formation: A struggle for the affirmation of human rights
by Erica Predko
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2008/05/17/02349.htmlSex reassignment surgery, or SRS, includes any medical surgery which altars the sex characteristics of the physical body to be more congruent with the desired body. This may include breast augmentation or chest reconstruction, electrolysis, phalloplasty or vaginoplasty, and many other surgeries. Gender Identity Clinics emerged in the 1960s when there was a growing demand from transsexual people for sex reassignment surgery and/or hormone therapy. The first of these institutes to open in Toronto was the Gender Identity Clinic at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry in 1969.
Patients referred to the Clarke's Gender Identity Clinic had their surgery and hormone costs paid for by the government from 1970 until October 1st, 1998, when the Conservative Harris government de-listed sex reassignment surgery for transsexuals. This mimics when in British Columbia, sex reassignment surgery was de-listed from provincial health care coverage in July 1988. However, the exclusion of SRS was repealed in June 1993 when it was decided that SRS was a medically necessary service.
