Comments (0)

By Rebecca, May 6, 2012 6:37 pm

A found poem constructed from text from the WPATH Standards of Care and the ICHIP coverage guidelines.

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health is NOT an insurance company. It is subject to its own enabling Act, and is neither an entitlement nor a welfare program.

Gender dysphoria is broadly defined as Section 7, operated by a board of directors pursuant to the Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan Act (215 ILCS 105/1 et seq.)

Discomfort or distress that is caused by a discrepancy between a person’s gender identity and that person’s sex assigned at birth must be eligible for this state program.

Transsexual, transgender, and gender nonconforming individuals who plan to change gender roles permanently will result in termination from the program as of the date required by state law.

The following is a brief description of the benefits provided by CHIP for covered services, drugs and supplies:

• surgeons
• patients
• mental healthcare professionals
• other health professionals
• clinical care

CHIP will not pay for any expense or charge set forth in more detail in any benefit plan booklet.

Transgender adjective must continue to meet all of the CHIP eligibility requirements.

Transsexual adjective must continue to meet all of the CHIP eligibility requirements.

Services, drugs or supplies that are for, or resulting from, surgery or surgeries performed in connection with sexual reassignment or gender transformation are often applied by the medical profession (referred to herein as Section 15).

Section 15 is neither an entitlement nor a welfare program.

Mental health professionals who plan to change gender roles permanently must be eligible for this state program before you can enroll.

The Illinois General Assembly- broadly defined as discomfort or distress – will not pay for any expense or charge.

Comments (0)

By Rebecca, April 27, 2012 1:38 pm

Thought Chicago folks might be interested.

Chicago Women’s Health Center (CWHC) is a non-profit health collective that provides sliding scale services including basic gynecological care, health education, counseling, massage, acupuncture and alternative insemination. The Trans Greater Access Project (TGAP) is an agency wide initiative to increase access to sliding scale health care services or trans individuals. As we look at ways we can better meet the health care needs of transfeminine communities, we are seeking input from trans women to inform our services.

The purpose of these focus groups is to:

• Assess how we can meet health care needs of transfeminine communities;
• Learn from transfeminine individuals’ experiences initiating hormone therapy in order to inform the development of our hormone administration services.

We are seeking both:

• Transfeminine individuals of any age who would like to share their thoughts and experiences regarding personal or community need for health care services.

AND

• Transfeminine individuals 18 years of age or older who have been on hormone therapy for a minimum of 6 months.

Focus groups will occur in May 2012.
As a participant, you will be provided with a cash incentive to thank you for your time.
Food provided.
If you are interested in participating, please call Jess at 773.935.6126 X222

Comments (5)

By Rebecca, April 14, 2012 1:39 pm

At eighteen, I was required to register for Selective Service, more commonly known as the draft. The draft hasn’t been active for decades, and no one has been charged for refusing to register for almost as long, but – legally – I was still required to register. The consequences for refusal weren’t jail time or hard labor or even fines, but did include the inability to apply for federal college loans. So, after much discussion and deliberation and arguing with my parents, I registered for the draft. I even received a draft card, which I still have in a drawer somewhere.

Needless to say, the US Military probably wouldn’t want me, should they reinstate the draft. I’ve transitioned since turning eighteen: gotten hair removal, grown my hair own, grown breasts, legally changed my name from Jared to Rebecca. Repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell means gays can legally serve in the military, but being transgender is still considered cause for medical discharge, under the same clause which forbids servicemen and women from sexually abusing children. Which, not surprisingly, doesn’t prevent transgender people from existing in the military. There’s a slowly growing lobbying effort by trans veterans for better treatment while in the military and better healthcare once out. Transgender people are everywhere. Even a Miss Universe pageant. Continue reading 'Military drafting, beauty contests, surgery, and so on'»

Comments (6)

By Rebecca, April 12, 2012 2:26 pm

I’m trying to create a ‘how to be a trans ally’ worksheet to hand out at workshops, and would love thoughts or feedback. I’m trying to keep it to a single page, which is limiting, but also get a bunch of good stuff in there… Here’s what I have so far:

THE EASY STUFF
Be open to using the pronouns/labels/language a trans person wants you to use. If you make a mistake, quickly correct yourself. This is the most important step of being an ally: allowing another to define their own identity.

If you don’t know what pronouns to use, ask. Politely and respectfully. This is a simple way to show your respect for someone else’s self-identification.

…but don’t pry or make assumptions. Don’t ask if someone had surgery or if they are on hormones or plan to do either of these things. It is invasive and personal. If someone would like to share that information with you, it is at their digression. Also understand that not all trans people choose medical to undergo medical intervention, and that not physically transitioning, taking hormones, or having surgery does not invalidate their trans identity.

Remember that gender is not the same as sexual orientation. Being trans does not mean a person is gay, and being gay doesn’t mean a person is trans. Sexuality is about attraction, gender is about a personal sense of self-identity.

Don’t out anyone. If someone tells you that they or someone else are trans, please do not share it with others unless you are told that it is okay to do so. They are trusting you, so don’t break their trust. Continue reading 'Trans Ally Worksheet'»

Comments (1)

By Rebecca, April 6, 2012 1:55 pm

A recent piece I performed at The Encyclopedia Show.

I have a question for the audience. By a show of hands, who here was happy with the changes they experienced during puberty? There’s no right or wrong answer, I’m just curious. Now, by a show of hands, who was unhappy?

I was unhappy when puberty hit. Miserable, actually. On-and-off suicidal. I’m transgender, which means I was assigned one gender at birth (male) but identify as another (female). So when puberty hit, around thirteen, I began developing in all of the ways which are normal for boys: Hair started growing in places I didn’t really want hair to grow (namely, everywhere), my voice dropped, I didn’t grow boobs or get all curvy, I discovered how great masturbation is, and I was slightly irritable, angry, or depressed for the next seven years; any normal boy’s puberty and trans girl’s nightmare.

The things happening to my body felt totally foreign, and not simply because puberty was changing my body from a child to an adult. They felt foreign because my body was changing from a child to a man. Continue reading 'Delayed Puberty'»

Comments (0)

By Rebecca, March 27, 2012 11:09 pm

As a child, I would fantasize about not being trans. Not that I’d fantasize about “really” being a boy. Rather, I’d imagine what life would be like if I were “really” a girl. I dreamed about developing along with the other girls, growing breasts and body hair and geting my first period. About sleepovers and braiding hair and bikes with streamers on the handles. I didn’t imagine a wholly different life, in a different city or with different parents, simply the proper life; the life I should have had. The life I deserved. Too much normality is boring, but I was dying to feel a bit more like everyone else.

I’ve revisited this question from time to time: Would I wish to not be trans, if given the opportunity? I wrote a story about that question last year. I should try and expand that story, since I sort of dodged the actual question. Because the short answer is, I don’t know. If our lives consist of diverging possibilities, the roads not taken, every day takes me further down the road of being trans. Put another way, every day makes my identity as a trans woman a bit more concrete, a bit less theoretical something to consider for “the future.” The future is here, I’m considering The Surgery. Being not-trans, a cis woman, might make my life prior to transitioning more enjoyable, but it would effectively reshape my life since I began to transition into something unrecognizable. Continue reading 'The Queer Body and Healthcare'»

Comments (1)

By Rebecca, March 22, 2012 2:38 pm

Originally posted at In Our Words, and reposted with permission.

March 1998, from March 2012

Dear Rebecca,

Can I call you Rebecca? I know you haven’t told many people that name. It’s one of the names mom and dad chose for you before you were born, one you’ve been using in your head since mom mentioned it while working on that genealogy project with you. I know it’s a private name for you right now, but things change. I promise they do.

This letter is coming from the year 2012, fourteen years in the future. You’re thirteen, I’m twenty-seven. You’re exploring your identity on the Internet, trying to figure out what “transgender” means and whether it applies to you. I’m writing about my identity on the Internet, trying to explain to others what “transgender” means and how it applies to me. And, from that perspective, I wanted to write you this letter.

Don’t let anyone tell you who you are. You know who you are. You know what you are. Doctors and therapists and family can help with that journey, but that can’t decide it for you. They also can’t do it for you. I know you’re dying for someone to step in and take the lead, to transition for you, to tell you what to do. And you’ll find doctors and therapists who will help along the way. But no one does it for you.

Put another way: it doesn’t get better. But you will make it better. Continue reading 'It Doesn’t Get Better (But You’ll Make It Better) – A letter to my younger self'»

Comments (0)

By Rebecca, March 20, 2012 12:32 am

This piece was originally posted at In Our Words, and is reposted with permission.

The last few weeks have seen a rush of stories about Obama’s childhood nanny, a transgender woman named Evie. Evie was Obama’s nanny for two years, although she was presenting as male at the time. Beginning with the AP story on March 5, “Obama’s transgender ex-nanny outcast,” the story quickly made the rounds–from American news outlets to the UK, New Zealand, Turkey, and beyond. Here’s the start of the original AP story:

Comments (4)

By Rebecca, March 15, 2012 2:51 pm

I’m sitting in Terminal 3 at O’Hare Airport in Chicago, waiting for my flight to San Francisco. I’m going to visit family and to have a surgery consult with Dr Bowers. Prepping for the trip, I thought through how I would handle the new TSA “Advanced Imaging Technology” (AIT) scanners. Ignoring potential health concerns and the fact that they don’t work to increase security, I’m concerned as a trans person. As someone who, as I’ve joke before, is attempting to smuggle a penis through airport security.

I talked about the TSA last year, while at the National Center for Transgender Equality’s conference on trans issues. The post discussed how the TSA was handling trans travelers, and they deserve credit for appearing at the conference at all. Likewise, when the TSA fucks up, they work (at least they say they do) to correct the problem. That said, it’s inherently obvious to anyone who works with computers – or even anyone who has a camera phone – that the TSA’s claim that the AIT scanners can’t store images is bullshit.

So I opted for the “enhanced” pat-down, preferring not to risk images of my naughty bits being sent far and wide without my knowledge or consent.

Continue reading 'Enhanced security patdown'»

Comments (0)

By Rebecca, March 12, 2012 6:08 pm

This piece is cross-posted at In Our Times, an awesome blog collecting various queer Chicago writers and viewpoints. I’ve just started writing with them, and can’t speak highly enough of the work they’re doing.

When I first came out to my parents as transgender, at around fourteen, I had a lot of unspoken questions: What did wanting to be a girl mean, when the whole world thought I was a boy? Could I ever be happy? How would this change our relationships? And, perhaps most important of all, how would transitioning from being a boy to being a girl work? What would that process be like?

I was lucky in some ways. I didn’t wonder whether my parents would kick me out of the house, or stop supporting me, or beat me, or any of the horrible things that happen all-too-often when trans youth come out to the adults in their lives. And when I said those terrifying words, “I think I want to be a girl,” my parents responded with love and compassion. My mom said, “We will love you, no matter what.” My dad said, “We’ll love you, whatever you are. As long as you’re not a Republican.” (The source of my own sense of humor was never a big mystery.) However, they didn’t know how to address my unspoken questions — or even know that those questions existed.

I tell this story a lot, and I do so for two reasons: First, to highlight a way in which my parents were awesome, by responding to my coming out by reiterating their love for me. But also to highlight a way in which they fell short, to highlight their ignorance around what it meant to be trans, to have a trans child. I tell the story of my coming out to focus on the difference between tolerance and acceptance, which my parents absolutely displayed, and support, which they didn’t know how to provide. Continue reading 'How to Be a Better Ally to Trans Folks in Four Steps'»