Moving between the sexes

[Butterfly]

Moving between the sexes 


By Ruth Sinai
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1018616.html
Sun, September 07, 2008


According to the procedure, a candidate for sex change must fit certain criteria that define him as a transsexual. "The Health Ministry should not be engaged in defining and cataloging people," Livnat wrote to Levy. "The important question is whether there is any reason to prevent an adult individual from choosing how to live his life."

The requirement to undergo the surgery at a public hospital gives off "a bad smell of government supervision of gender and sexuality of men and women in society," wrote Livnat. The need for the committee's approval is also not clear in light of the fact that approval for other kinds of plastic surgery does not require the convening of a committee, he added. Livnat believes that the requirement for a diagnosis by a psychologist and a psychiatrist has its origin in the view that a person who wishes to change his gender identity is suspected of being mentally ill.