Typical leftist wingnut… advocating spending tax dollars on healthcare and then denying Americans the right to their military industrial complex.
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Who pays for the hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery? The inmate? Or the army?
Just wondering. I have transgender friends who work minimum-wage jobs with no health insurance and suffer tremendously because they can’t afford any transition therapy at all. I wonder if robbing a bank would be the way to go.
Just wondering.
This what that you point out is the big conundrum between trans activists in different countries. Here in Argentina, for instance, being trans is now treated as a bureaucratic issue, not a mental illness, because the government passed a very progressive gender identity law requiring the government to accept people’s own word about their sex and gender and update their ID’s and educational transcripts with no need for visible physical cues or any sort of diagnosis or other type of medical ‘permission to transition’. In theory, the public hospitals have to pay for HRT and surgeries, though there’s not much compliance yet, So, activists here often refute the idea that trans is a disorder, an illness, a defect, etc. But, in countries where the government or health system (or both) require the citizen to obtain permission to change their sex or gender, trans MUST be an illness or a defect or else the people won’t be able to get treatment and change their documents.
I still think that if the bureaucratic part were fixed (i.e. person gets to legally be the sex they say they are) the rest would fall into line, because for instance any woman who’s estrogen levels were so low would qualify for HRT from their healthcare provider. Hence it’s not the trans that’s the illness, it’s the hormone levels that can be treated.
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It’s interesting however, to bring up the unpopular view of a sacred cow and see how long it takes for the ad hominem attacks to begin.
Generally, the facility (here, run by the DoD) provides necessary medical treatment. Whether or not hormone replacement therapy or sexual reassignment surgery are medically necessary will be left to the prison doctors, lawyers, and courts. I don’t think there’s an easy, clear answer here. It’ll probably take a while to resolve this.
Let’s put off the issue of the reassignment surgery. It wasn’t explicitly mentioned in the letter, and it’s not something that doctors sign off on without years of counseling and treatment (is that right?).
From a practical point of view, in the long run, it’s probably cheaper (in terms of staff and medical resources) to supply Manning with hormone replacement therapy drugs than it is to deal with the consequences of not treating the underlying gender identity disorder (depression, anxiety, suicide attempts, etc).
From a medical point of view, I’m happy leaving treatment decisions to the doctors.
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And yet, here we are. Obviously, because I didn’t mention general military wasteful spending, I must be all for it while monstrously being against gender reassignment surgery.
EDIT: And others are pointing out that the reassignment argument may be a bit of a red herring, as the letter doesn’t explicitly mention surgery. We (I’m including myself) are probably all assuming that part of being Chelsea would include gender reassignment. My apologies.
…respect HER as a woman.
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Hey, I live in Illinois, and if they follow other states’ lead, it’ll be a basic human right for prisoners here as well.
And here in Illinois, we do our part to overreact to the War on Drugs, too. It used to be a fun game the country folks played around here on the “townie” stoners, to take them out in the country and sell them stuff that wasn’t remotely marijuana. You know, just for shits and giggles. Now, doing that is every bit as serious a crime as selling the actual drugs.
So if we do that, if we pass it as a prisoner’s basic human right, have them move here. Have them get a baggie and put grass clippings in it, make a big show of saying, “Hey, wanna buy some grass?” Boom. A few months later, they’re in the system.
As a free person, they don’t have a basic human right to lifesaving treatment. In the system, they’ll be able to get reassigned! Hooray! And because the government’s doing it, nobody pays for it!
Go on…
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OK a Pedantic Question:
So from here on out she is referred to as Chelsea and as she.
From Yesterday back to coming to the internal conclusion of gender identity she is referred to as she/he? (ie the period where as far as Chelsea is concerned the gender identity is settle but was not announced to the outside world)
In the events previous to this statement when she did some very brave things an was publicly identified as Bradley do we refer to the historic events as done by He/Bradley, She/Bradley, She/Chelsea.
I wish her luck going forward, I am not expecting the US government to make this easy for her. Hopefully I am wrong
BoingBoing might have reason to care, since they unwittingly outed Manning while DADT was still in place, initially reacting by deleting any comments about transgenderism, then went on to, well, keep going on about it. That’s why I’ve been quite frankly a little bemused by them behaving as if it’s shocking and an outrage that his “My little problem” photo was used against him (he was tried as Bradley Manning, AFAIK) It was another strike against Manning in the world of military justice.
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Let me clear something up. On subject of transgender issues being primarily mental? http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/10/27/2401941.htm This study indicates there’s a genetic component, and that hormone levels while a child is in the womb can be a contributing factor. So to shrug it off as a mental condition is ill informed. I’d also like to add as a transgender boingboing reader, I am very pleased to see so many tolerant and supporting people on here. edit, forgot a word
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If it is a mental disorder, it’s not one that causes a loss of function.
Citation needed.
I’m a licensed mental health provider who works with trans people all the time. Clearly you have no idea how much a person’s life can be impacted by gender dysphoria (and of course transphobia.)
It would probably be traumatic if we tried to force treatment on children, though.
If by “force treatment on children” you mean “force them to try to live as the gender they were assigned at birth rather than the one they identify with,” indeed, it is traumatic from all evidence. However, I suspect you may mean the opposite, and be trying to imply that families that allow kids to self-identify their gender are “forcing” something on them.
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Telling someone else 1) to relax, 2) what they think and 3) what they want is an even surer way to
create more distracting rhetoric
But you know that already.
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Nobody needs you to say anything. I swear.
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Yes, you’re definitely the real victim here.
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And fucking again with the “real whistleblowers must be willing to be brutalized” bullshit. Chelsea Manning is a real person with a real life, she has already sacrificed much and suffered much, and she is not required to sacrifice more for your political convenience.
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I just don’t understand why our tax dollars have to go toward what is, in all honesty, elective surgery.
Perhaps, then, you should educate yourself about appropriate treatment of gender dysphoria. That would go a long way to helping your understanding.
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Replying to Maggie so this stays in line with oualsout’s thoughts
I don’t see how hormone therapy would be needed as Manning isn’t currently taking nor was taking hormones prior to his/her military service.
I understand the gender reassignment angle from the standpoint of needing it to help with identity. But I truly do not like the idea of taxes/military budget (outlandish and insane as it may be) covering “elective” surgery. I appreciate the pain and torment one feels when what they see physically doesn’t match how they feel inherently/emotionally/intrinsically but until our healthcare system is one that is driven off of citizens’ contributions, I don’t see how it’s the state’s duty to provide a solution beyond counseling.
Can you elaborate as you seem to be an advocate for it. I’d really like to hear your point of view.
-C
