This is the main civil rights strategy to attain access to transition-related care for transgender people in this country, from the ACLU. A lot of people, in cases involving prisoners, talk about how bad it would be for prisoners to gain access, without understanding that establishing in court cases the medical necessity of transition-related care for many transgender people is very important! Because of the obligations born by governments in this country, especially involving people under state custody, which are greater than the obligations born by private insurers, the legal claims for the provision of surgery are stronger in the public sector than in the private sector. Here is a pretty good summary of the strategy, for those who are curious:
Quote:
For many transgender people, access to transition-related health care is crucial to their ability to live consistently with their gender identity. This health care takes many forms — psychological counseling, hormone therapy, presenting in the new gender, and, for some people, a range of surgical procedures. But since our society often doesn’t consider this health care to be necessary or believe that transgender people have a legitimate medical condition, most insurance plans don’t cover it.
As advocates for transgender people, the ACLU's challenge is to find ways to change the popular notion that transition-related health care is cosmetic or optional, rather than medically necessary to address a person’s serious distress. In the private health care world, we can and do advocate with employers and insurance companies for better coverage, but there are few legal claims we can bring.
But we can sue over the care provided to people in government custody — prisons, immigration detention facilities, or foster care group homes — because the Constitution requires that the government address people’s medical needs in those contexts. Bringing lawsuits over the care received in government custody not only helps people who are being mistreated, but also helps build a broader consensus that this care should be accessible to all transgender people. Wins like this can lead to coverage for transition-related health care in government programs like Medicaid and Medicare, and eventually to coverage under private insurance plans as well.
https://www.aclu.org/blog/lgbt-rights/c ... ransgender
In this case, regarding the Wisconsin Inmate Sex Change Prevention Act, the Appeals Court upheld the District Court's decision to strike down the law on its face and the Supreme Court later declined to review the case when the state appealed, leaving as precedent in the 7th Circuit the unconstitutionality of blanket prohibitions of transition-related care for inmates. Here the Supreme Court denies certiorari:
https://www.aclu.org...rights-struggle
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"You have a responsibility to consider all sides of a problem and a responsibility to make a judgment and a responsibility to care for all involved." --Ian Danskin
07 Jan 2014, 2:41 am
