Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Transgender Americans Struggle For Coverage As U.S. Lags 'Far Behind' Even Iran (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/22/transgender-coverage_n_3797843.html)
Jillian Berman & Jeffrey Young, The Huffington Post, 08/22/2013 6:55 pm EDT

In one regard, many transgender Americans face the same plight as Chelsea Manning -- their health insurer won't cover the costly procedures associated with transitioning genders

But that isn't the case everywhere.

While the majority of private and public health insurance plans in the United States won't cover certain types of care or treatments for transgender people, a surprising array of countries including Iran, Brazil and the United Kingdom, cover procedures like hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery either free of charge or at a low cost.

"The U.S. is very far behind," said Kellan Baker, the associate director of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender progress at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. "There are many countries with national health care systems that cover what transgender people need without prejudice."

The Obama administration is tackling this issue under the president's health care reform law. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has specified that the nondiscrimination laws in Obamacare protect transgender people.

Damn it, we had one job: be better than Iran. Way to blow it, America! XD LOL

Homosexuality is illegal in Iran.  Their former president Ahmadinejad famously said with a straight face that Iran doesn't have a problem with gay rights because there are no gay people in Iran.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-483746/We-dont-gays-Iran-Iranian-president-tells-Ivy-League-audience.html

According to wikipedia though Iran is a world leader in the number of gender reassignment surgerys performed, second only to Thailand.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transsexuality_in_Iran  With the tight media controls in place in Iran this is such a murky subject it is hard to tell exactly what is going on - but the chilling reports that homosexuals are pressured into undergoing SRS even if they do not have any sort of gender identity disorder is something the world community really needs to shine more of a light on to see if this is true or not.

I think the headline of this article is extremely insensitive (not your fault for posting it though - just a god-awful hack of a copywriter!)

Do you know in what other category the United States lags far behind Iran??

Homosexual executions

I would like to add to my comments above.  The authors of the article disingenuously contend that the United States healthcare system lags behind such bright lights as Iran in HRT and SRS, which are "free of charge or at low cost."

As we should all know, present-day Iran is a functioning theocracy, where the real power and law making ability rests with the Muslim clergy and their functionaries.  Their Shi'a version of Islam closely resembles that of Islam in the 7th century, AD.

As others here have pointed out, homosexuality is not tolerated in Iran.  They deny it exists.  And when found, results in execution.  There is a very real gay-cleansing going on in Iran.

One way to avoid being hung if you are found out as gay, is to admit to being transsexual, and having involuntary reassignment surgery, and being reclassified as a second class citizen in Iran, as most women are.  Involuntary surgeries remind me of the experiments performed on Jews, Slavs, Romani, POWs, and others during the Nazi era.

To use Iranian genocide and barbaric practices to criticize us in the U.S. is despicable.  "Progressive" Iranian healthcare for transsexuals comes at the end of a hangman's noose.  Nothing is free.

Well said Jamie