SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Michelle-Lael Norsworthy, most notably known for setting a precedent that the state of California needs to provide gender reassignment surgery for trans inmates, is finally undergoing her surgery this Friday, Feb. 10. In April 2015, in the landmark decision of Norsworthy v. Beard, U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar ruled the state…
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota district court ruled this week that transgender people on the state’s Medical Assistance program in Minnesota deserve access to medically necessary services related to gender transition. Since 2005, surgical treatments for gender dysphoria have been excluded from coverage even though equivalent treatments were covered under the federal Medicare program and…
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — Imprisoned whistleblower Chelsea Manning ended her hunger strike Tuesday, having secured assurances from the Army that she will receive the medically prescribed treatment for her gender dysphoria. The treatment will begin with the surgery that was recommended by her psychologist in April. Since she was first taken into custody in 2010, Manning,…
WASHINGTON — As Obama administration proposes new rules that would prevent health care providers from discriminating against transgender surgery and similar gender-related care, a new survey of transgender people nationally finds that even when care is denied, there are important costs for both insurers and the public. As a result of being denied insurance coverage for…
Denee Mallon, 74-year-old transgender woman, has become the first person to receive gender reassignment surgery on a government Medicare plan. From her hospital bed in Chicago Mallon said, “Here I am, finally, after all these years. It happened.” NBC News reported that her operation will be one of the first paid for by Medicare after…
Fredrick William Scholl, 74, of Lemon Grove passed away due to natural causes April 16 at his home. Fred Scholl helped build many of San Diego’s most important LGBT institutions. Fred was born in San Diego but lived in Germany as a child, and lost both of his parents in World War II. Members of…
Physical pain. I’ve been experiencing a lot of it in the past week. One of the chronic conditions that contribute to my VA disability rating of 100 percent is the lumbar area of my back. A combination of exaggerated lordosis (an exaggerated curve in the lumbar region of the spine), years of lifting heavy gas…
As the military services are moving each day in the direction of better supporting LGB dependents (spouses, children, etc.), there are Ts in the military family that the DoD is failing to adequately support. We don’t hear much about these Ts in the military family, but within the military family there is no question that…
The case of Leyland v. Orr was argued and decided in 1987 by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Jane Anne Leyland was a reserve officer who had served in the Air Force and Air Force Reserves for a total of 15 years, and shortly after being selected for lieutenant colonel she had a vaginoplasty…
http://youtu.be/CdPHPBAEBQ4 VIETNAM — What started as a low-budget effort on YouTube about the travails of three perpetually broke 20-something friends living in Ho Chi Minh City, My Best Gay Friends has quickly evolved into one of the most popular shows in Vietnam. Shot on a shoestring budget with three unknown actors – all friends in…
