AMA Mends Trans Stance

Trans rights got a dose of good – and largely unnoticed – medicine from the American Medical Association earlier this month when the healers amended their non-discrimination policy to include transgender folk.

The report, released after the docs’ House of Delegates meeting in Chicago, admitted the allegedly helpful profession’s short comings:

Transgender individuals face complex medical, psychological, and social issues. Within the health care system issues of discrimination and unique access barriers to important medical and social support services can occur.

The AMA explicitly addresses discriminatory insurance policies, many of which won’t cover trannies in transition or “contra-gender” procedures, such as a prostrate exam for a male-to-female.

Trans activists are confident the move will help equalize the medicinal playing field, which has historically been slanted away from trans folk. Journo Jamie Tyroler recalls one friend’s tragic near-end:

A few years ago, a transgender friend of mine tried committing suicide by swallowing a large amount of over-the-counter medication. She walked to a local emergency room where the doctor on duty ordered her to leave and not to return. The doctor told her that this hospital would never treat someone like her. Fortunately, she survived her suicide attempt. Unfortunately though, walking home in a very fragile state, she was raped.

Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, hopes the move will help move “the American health care system in a direction of more fairness for transgender people”. And the rest of us, too…