Barriers!

Every day we face barriers in the way of our transition, changing documentation is a challenge that we have to face. When I transitioned besides the government documents that I had to change there were also the utilities, insurance policies, and financial and banking documents.

Some were easy to change other were an obstacle course you had to manage.

Transgender woman’s civil rights complaint prompts Texas health agency to change food stamp policy
SNAP applicants whose forms include wrong information will no longer be asked to correct the errors themselves after a trans woman struggled to apply for benefits. Stephanie Todd of Dallas expressed gratitude that the agency treated her with respect and dignity during the process.
The Dallas Morning News
By Lauren McGaughy
February 3, 2022


AUSTIN — Texas Health and Human Services Commission says applicants for food stamp will no longer have to self-correct errors on their forms after a transgender woman struggled to get access to the benefits, The Dallas Morning News has learned.

Stephanie Todd, a 39-year-old trans woman living in Dallas, applied for benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in November after losing her job. Todd, who recently changed her name, said she updated the information on her identifying documents more than nine months earlier.

But the form HHSC sent to verify her employment included her previous name. Todd called the agency and said she was first told to let the form expire and then reapply again.

“I can’t do that. I’m going to starve to death if I don’t get some help,” Todd said she told the agency representative.

Funny how a threat of legal action propelled changes…

HHSC confirmed to The News that the agency changed its SNAP policies in response to Todd’s civil rights complaint. Applicants whose forms include incorrect information will no longer be asked to correct the errors themselves, and will instead be sent a blank form.

“We continually review guidance, policies and procedures related to application processing, and when we find ways to improve them, we do so,” HHSC press officer Kelli Weldon said.

In a response to her civil rights complaint that Todd provided to The News, HHSC said it was investigating even though current law does not protect transgender people from discrimination.

It is sad that we have to bop them on the head like Gibbs on NCIS to get their attention.

Todd said she received her benefits card, with the correct information, in late November. In the intervening weeks, she relied on her parents and friends from a local church for food. She also sold a number of her video games and comic books.

Todd thanked the agency for working with her to fix the issue and for changing their policies to ensure it doesn’t happen to someone else.

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While writing this I spied another article on trans health care,

LGBTQ rights group suspends Dallas hospitals from equality index after cuts to transgender care
UT Southwestern and Children’s Health are no longer listed as “high performers” on the Human Rights Campaign’s index
The Dallas Morning News
By Marin Wolf and Lauren McGaughy
February 10, 2022 


The Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ rights organization, has suspended two Dallas hospitals from its scoring system on health care inclusivity after the facilities shuttered the state’s only comprehensive medical program for transgender children to new patients.

In a letter to leadership at Children’s Health and University of Texas Southwestern sent Wednesday afternoon, HRC said the program’s closure and lack of public communication on the decision led it to suspend the hospitals from both the biennial Healthcare Equality Index 2020 and “top performer” designations.

Genecis — which stands for Gender Education and Care, Interdisciplinary Support — was a highly acclaimed seven-year-old program created by the hospitals to provide transgender and gender-diverse youth with health care, including mental health counseling and hormone therapy.

“The decisions that have been made regarding the provision of medical care for transgender and gender-diverse youth put the lives of young people at risk — and require us to take action with regard to both Children’s Medical Center Dallas and UT Southwestern’s Healthcare Equality Index status,” said Jay Brown, HRC Foundation senior vice president for programs, research and training.

Why did the hospitals cut their trans health program?

The hospitals stated that care for adult transgender patients continues through UT Southwestern’s departments of endocrinology, psychiatry and other departments, while pediatric care continues through specialty clinics. “As noted previously, the decision to remove branding for this care offers a more private, insulated experience for patients and families,” the hospitals said.

Okay I can buy that it was done for privacy but then there is this,

In November, the hospitals said they would no longer be accepting new patients for puberty suppression or hormone therapy to treat gender dysphoria.

Which sure doesn’t jive with the privacy statement.

Republican politicians in Texas have increasingly put the medical treatment of transgender children under the spotlight in recent months, as they enter a competitive reelection season next year.

Earlier this year, after state lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to change state law to ban gender-affirming care, Gov. Greg Abbott encouraged the child protective services to redefine abuse to include surgical intervention for trans youth.

To me it seems more like duck and cover your a_ _ from in coming flak from being targeted by the Republicans.

I would also like to point out that Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) prohibits discrimination against us*.

Section 1557 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), in covered health programs or activities...

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*Under the Trump administration they proposed a rule change in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Section 1557 that would have done away with health coverage for transgender people.