San Fran to pay for Sex Changes

[Freakapotimus]

There's a bunch of good stories today...
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Tuesday May 01 10:00 AM EDT

San Fran to Pay for Sex Changes
By ABCNEWS.com

San Francisco will pay for its employees' sex-change operations.

San Francisco employees who feel they were born in the wrong body may soon get a little municipal help setting things right.In a 9-2 vote, the Board of Supervisors approved a controversial plan to pay for the sex change operations of transgender employees, becoming the first city in the nation to do so.

The city employs about 37,000 people, 14 of whom are transgendered.

Transsexuals Jubilant

"The first thing I can stop doing is paying for hormone therapy out-of-pocket, which has been costing me about $400 a year for the last six years," said jubilant transsexual city employee Marcus Arana.

"If you are a non-transgender employee and you need a mastectomy or a hysterectomy or some treatment for a heart ailment, liver or kidney, your health plan would cover it," said Supervisor Mark Leno, who sponsored the bill. "But if you are transgender, you would not have that same coverage, so we're going to end that inequity."

But Tony Hall, one of the two who voted against the measure, says he's opposed to special treatment for transgender employees.

"I think it's giving a large benefit package to a very small segment of the population at the expense of other groups," he said. Supervisor Leland Yee also voted against the measure.

Transsexual Veronika Cauley, a commissioner on the mayor's veterans affairs commission, called the benefits long overdue.

"It's important that transgenders be given all benefits," Cauley said. "If they work for the city, there shouldn't be a dividing line as to why one group can have and the other can't."

Limits to the Plan

The plan, which takes effect July 1, does have its limitations: first-year employees are not eligible, and elective or cosmetic surgery is not covered. But it does cover genital reconstructions in both male-to-female and female-to-male surgeries, as well as hormone therapies.

The operation can cost $37,000 to transform a man into a woman and $77,000 to turn a woman into a man, but the benefit has a cap of $50,000. City employees will have to pay 15 percent of the bill.

The new benefits could cost the city between $1 million and $1.74 million dollars. City employees will collectively foot the bill, paying about $1.70 per month each.

"I don't really care," said city employee Anne Okuba. "I mean, it's an expensive benefit but it's probably not going to cost me that much."

Another unnamed employee was not so sure.

"I'm not prejudiced by far or anything like that," the employee said. "But where does it stop?"

One step remains before the bill can become law: Mayor Willie Brown still needs to sign the legislation.

ABCNEWS Radio and ABCNEWS affiliate KGO in San Francisco contributed to this report.

[P-Chan]

That's insane. It's way too much benefit too far too few people. And it's not even life threatening surgery either!

This money could have gone to something useful, like the vaccination of 100's of people of something...

How on earth could a bill like this even get proposed?

[Mos]

At 5/1/01 12:40 PM, P-Chan wrote: That's insane. It's way too much benefit too far too few people. And it's not even life threatening surgery either!

This money could have gone to something useful, like the vaccination of 100's of people of something...

How on earth could a bill like this even get proposed?

It was proposed by those scheming Liberals, I tell you!

[P-Chan]

At 5/6/01 02:06 AM, Mos wrote:

At 5/1/01 12:40 PM, P-Chan wrote: That's insane. It's way too much benefit too far too few people. And it's not even life threatening surgery either!

This money could have gone to something useful, like the vaccination of 100's of people of something...

How on earth could a bill like this even get proposed?

It was proposed by those scheming Liberals, I tell you!

And conservatives don't scheme? Geez...

[KaneOfNod]

At 5/6/01 02:34 AM, P-Chan wrote:

At 5/6/01 02:06 AM, Mos wrote:

At 5/1/01 12:40 PM, P-Chan wrote: That's insane. It's way too much benefit too far too few people. And it's not even life threatening surgery either!

This money could have gone to something useful, like the vaccination of 100's of people of something...

How on earth could a bill like this even get proposed?

It was proposed by those scheming Liberals, I tell you!

And conservatives don't scheme? Geez...

Not about sex changes!