Cuomo Refuses To Fund Transition Health via Medicaid/My Life In The Syracuse Closet

So, Andrew “Marriage-Equality-Is-The-Only-Thing-I-Care-About” Cuomo has done it again. An advisory panel has recommended to Andrew Cuomo that transition related procedures be covered under Medicaid. Of course, Cuomo decides to treat that like other New York politicians did with gender identity rights as well as homeless LGBT youth:

From the Syracuse Post-Standard:

The decision comes one day after the New York Post first reported that one of the eleven working groups of a panel appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo to overhaul the system and cut costs was considering including surgery and hormone replacement therapy as part of Medicaid coverage.

Advocates say covering transgender surgery under Medicaid could save thousands in mental health and drug abuse treatment costs each year.

“The reason the AMA (American Medical Association) said this is medically necessary is if the transgender can’t get services they need to live in the gender they are it leads to depression, suicide attempts, substance abuse,” said Ross Levi, who heads the gay and transgender advocacy group Empire State Pride Agenda, told the AP.

The AMA told the AP it supports such coverage only when a patient’s doctor deems the treatment medically necessary.

Currently, California and Minnesota are the only states that cover the surgery and hormone replacement therapy.

So, that means that if you are an indigent trans person living in New York City, apparently Gay Mecca East, and you want to go to Callen-Lorde and get hormones, well, too bad!!!! I will never forget reading about the case of Terri Casillas, who may have been forced to detransition due to a gay rights supporting governor stopping her treatment. I am so angry right now, that I will join any group which seeks to constitutionally overturn same-sex marriage in New York State, just to teach these people a lesson. Terri, if you are reading this, please move to Philly and get help through the Mazzoni Centre.

And from the Huffington Post:

Coverage for all transition-related health care is currently excluded under New York regulation N.Y.Comp.Codes R.& Regs.tit.18,§505.2(l). What this means is that medically necessary hormone care that costs as little as $20 a month is excluded from coverage only for transgender individuals. This blanket exclusion leaves transgender Medicaid recipients unable to access health care that prevailing medical standards confirm is medically necessary for patients with Gender Identity Disorder (GID). The American Medical Association, the American Psychology Association (APA) and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) have supported access to transition-related health care when a patient’s doctor finds the treatment to be medically necessary.

Key word is “only”; since this regulation does not preclude hormone therapy for anyone else, it can be seen as specifically targeting the trans community. And since New York State does not have a gender non-discrimination law, its harder to bring the issue to court. You see, it may seem like a lot to some tea-bag types who worship Wall Street, but think about the costs of not being able to transition. It is human nature for a transgender person to feel uncomfortable for the gender which they were born in, and this would lead to depression, anxiety, substance abuse and even suicide, and it costs a lot more, even in fiscal terms, to clean up the mess from the state’s misguided “be-happy-with-your-birth-sex-and-deal-with-it” attitude rather than give them the help they need, which would help them get off Medicaid (of course, my belief in single payer still stands).

But let’s talk about Syracuse for a second. It is the 4th largest city in New York, and has the unfortunate distinction of being the largest city in New York State without a trans rights ordinance (NYS is a lot like Pennsylvania in terms of LGBT rights, except that in the former, LGB people are protected, while people on the local level only have to fight for the T). And…I lived there once upon a time.

About 13 months before I first came out as trans, I left Syracuse after about 10 months and hundreds of moments of hardship. I moved there shortly after graduating Ramapo College in a degree program as well as gender presentation that I regret (I was still presenting as male and at the time, was more attracted to men), and was going to start a new chapter of my life at SUNY School Of Environmental Science And Forestry (located just south of Syracuse University’s campus). I was, of course, studying forestry, which I found was not for me; combined with the fact that I am learning disabled and also the “boys club” culture of the group, I ended up flunking out but stayed in Syracuse until circumstances forced me back to the hell that is New Jersey!!!

But let’s talk about the LGBT community there. As a SUNY-ESF student, I was able to take advantage of all the clubs and programs that Syracuse University had to offer, and I often found myself at the LGBT Resource Center, where I ended up spending my Thursday Nights participating in Cafe Q as well as Open Doors, which was a grad social group. I admittedly had fun with the groups and met some good people, but it seemed like the only people who felt welcome at the community center were cisgender gay males and cisgender lesbians. The bi was ignored and the T was tokenized, and transgender issues were almost never discussed. In fact, the only time I ever saw a trans person was a local performer who came to Cafe Q once.

In terms of activism, it was next to nothing. The only type of activism that I saw during my time there was something that was largely spearheaded by me. SUNY-ESF, as part of an ecology course, took students to Dominica, which is a country in the Caribbean where homosexuality is illegal, and I started the conversation about the college divesting from Dominica (and I proposed Costa Rica as an alternative location), which only led to the professor being aware of this and bringing it up to students.

Had I had the vagina to come out as trans, I would have realized that there was an LGBT injustice right there in my backyard instead of thinking about something overseas. I even brought up the fact that gender identity was not protected once to a discussion group, and it just rolled over their heads. I’m glad I flunked out and left Syracuse, because had I been able to stay and choose a new major, I would have delayed my transition and while I may have gotten employed, I would have still lived with the pain by being forced into a masculine gender role. I am glad I am here in Philadelphia, because it is a far better city for trans people, though one day, if some in the LGB community get off their ass and Trans* people get the bravery that I never had while there, I would love to come back and support a potential trans rights ordinance, as an epilogue of sorts to close out a difficult time.

But there may be hope. Syracuse University has a non-discrimination statement that include “gender identity and gender expression”, however, nearby SUNY-ESF does not enumerate gender identity. In addition, there is a “Trans@ SU section” on the LGBT Resource Center’s website, however, it says “coming soon“. Well, trans rights can’t come soon enough to Salt City, as well as New York State as a whole.

And this is why I am beginning to think about Occupy Wall Street, which of course, began in New York State. What the trans community needs to do is to “occupy” spaces that, although supposedly fighting for queer rights, have been populated by mostly cisgender LGB people. They need to start “occupying” all facets of queer civil society, such as participating Empire State Pride Agenda and other similar groups and sending letters and meeting with their Senators and Assemblypeople, as well as possible direct action in Albany. Perhaps if the trans community from New York State and beyond began an occupation in the state house, we’d see non-discrimination as well as transitional health for the indigent, and possibly many more concessions to our community.