Your Tax Dollars Are Going to Fund This Army Prisoner’s Sex Reassignment Surgery
The government is footing the bill for Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning, who is currently serving a 35-year sentence for participating in a national security secrets leak, to undergo gender reassignment surgery while in prison.
According to Manning’s lawyers, Manning ended a hunger strike that began last week after the Army said it would provide the surgery, USA Today reports. Previously, Manning sued the Army for not providing hormone treatment, causing the Army to initiate hormone therapy.
When Manning’s gender reassignment surgery will transpire is still in question, but Manning is meeting with doctors this month.
To be clear, this surgery isn’t cheap and American taxpayers could be picking up the tab, as they are with Manning. Estimates for male-to-female transitions range from $7,000 to $24,000 and female-to-male reassignment can exceed $50,000. Even so, efforts to include gender-transition healthcare services to military members is gaining momentum.
Tricare, the military’s healthcare program, is forging ahead in paying for some gender-transition health care services to military family members and retirees, despite the fact the official policy — scheduled for finalization in October — hasn’t been authorized yet.
“It is no longer justifiable to categorically exclude and not cover currently accepted medically and psychologically necessary treatments for gender dysphoria (such as psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy, and hormone replacement therapy) that are not otherwise excluded by statute,” the proposed regulation states.
Raquel Bono, Navy Vice Admiral and head of the Defense Health Agency, said last month she will not wait for the final policy and, instead, is having Tricare proceed in administering these services.
Although Tricare and the Veterans Health Department are explicitly prohibited from covering sex-change surgeries, Democratic lawmakers are requesting the Department of Veterans Affairs to include covering gender reassignment surgery for transgender veterans.
Just this week, a group of six House members submitted a letter asking for sex-reassignment surgeries to be covered.
“We write to you today as members of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus Transgender Equality Task Force to urge the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to move swiftly to ensure access to medically necessary surgical care for transgender veterans,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to VA Secretary Robert McDonald. “We urge you to move forward with publishing a proposed rule to remove the arbitrary and outdated restriction that prohibits VA from providing medical services to treat gender dysphoria.”
In June 2016, Defense Secretary Ash Carter eliminated the ban prohibiting transgender individuals from openly serving in the military. (For more from the author of “Your Tax Dollars Are Going to Fund This Army Prisoner’s Sex Reassignment Surgery” please click HERE)
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