My letter to Congress and Government!!
Greeting honorable ______________,
My name is Jessica Lauren Merriman. I am a former Emergency Services Specialist for 28 years until an injury in the line of duty forced me into retirement. I served with honor and dignity and was highly decorated for my actions. I also belong to a unique segment of society as I am transgender. After fighting a terrible and debilitating medical issue recognized by the medical profession I have begun to transition from male to female. Whether you personally believe we should have rights or access to proper medical care is of course your private decision whether it is religious or personal and I respect that. I do feel like the hundreds of thousands of us deserve to be heard though in this democratic nation.
I would like to bring to your attention something your opponents in the next election will trumpet and use to sway a particular group of voters. That is the lifting of the transgender care exclusions by Medicare. Upon review of this supposed lift nothing contained within supports the proper care people with Gender Dysphoria suffer with. It is a toothless and powerless gesture. I say this because the Specialist's we need to utilize to correct our issue's will not accept it at all. I personally have been turned down by every single Surgeon with the skill and experience to provide myself and others with Genital Reconstructive Surgery or GRS that they need to feel complete and normal. To not feel right in your own skin is a terrible burden to carry and causes other stress and anxiety producing medical issue's. For some it is too much and our community has a 41% suicide rate. In any other group of individuals with this high rate there would be protest's, high profile and the call for action. Sadly that is not the case with our community. All we get are promises and token gestures like the one above.
We will no longer allow this type of action or fake gestures and with the increased publicity our community receives the pressure on members of Government will get worse every day. It is my desire with this communication to open a dialog with you so we can make progress and heal those who suffer greatly every single day. It is my hope you will find support for our medical care even if they conflict with your personal views of the transgender community. All of us in this great nation should make sure that no one group or person goes without fundamental medical care or is relegated to second class status. I want to work with you on a resolution to ensure we have access to medical procedures and Specialist's who will work with us for common decency, not inflated profits while leaving those less fortunate out of the loop. Everyone you and me included should have access to what we need when we need it even if the diagnosis is not considered main stream or different.
This example is extreme, but it is what transgender people face every single day with regard to transgender care and the process it involves.
As a Paramedic I respond to a call for chest pain. Upon arrival I determine by signs and symptoms and cardiac strip that the patient is indeed suffering a Myocardial Infarction (heart attack). I tell the patient before treating him or her that before I start you have to pay $20,000 (average price for GRS) for the Intravenous Line before it is performed. If you pay for the I.V. line before I can give you sublingual Nitroglycerine, Lidocaine and Morphine you have to have two letters from different Therapist's and live one year as a healthy person to make sure you can handle living a healthy life. How long would I last as a Paramedic and how big would the lawsuit be against me and the Emergency Medical Service I work for? Though extreme this is just what our process entails.
According to World Professional Association for Transgender Health this above example is what we deal with. First we have to see a Therapist preferably with gender experience. It will take between 3 months and one year for us to receive a mandatory letter to begin Hormone Replacement Therapy. Names are changed and filed with the respective courts and Government agencies and is costly. Then if GRS is warranted we have to live one year as our target gender and then produce two letters for approval for Genital reassignment. In between some do hair removal (lengthy and very costly), Facial Feminization surgery (very expensive), Voice Surgery (very expensive) and other personal surgical decisions such as Breast Enhancement or removal. None of what I mentioned is covered by the Medicare Transgender Care Exclusion. All we are asking and demanding is the same access to care and medical procedures just like people do for any other medical condition. We do not go through this procedure for entertainment or a fetish, but a certified medical condition. The biggest goal of transgender people is simply to blend in and live. We pay bills, work and have lives just like a majority of the population. We try not to get bitter at the lack of action regarding our care, but that is slowly fading away. Time should have by now accepted us and allowed us a way to exist without constant neglect.
I look forward to contact with you and will provide any information you need to assist our community. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Jessica Lauren Merriman
