Confronting Boston's sex-change insurance proposal

by Mass Resistance

On Wednesday, April 16, two members of the Boston City Council introduced an ordinance to require that health insurance for city employees cover "transgender" sex-change procedures, including hormone treatments and "gender reassignment" surgery. This is the latest demand of the homosexual / transgender movement in many cities across the country.

Who would have ever imagined something like this even a decade ago?

It was introduced by City Councilors Michelle Wu and Ayanna Pressley, two of the most liberal on an already left-wing Boston City Council. They worked closely with local homosexual activists, according to press reports. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, an aggressive pro-homosexual advocate, told the press that he is "wholeheartedly in support" of it.

It was applauded by the usual crowd. "This ordinance is a pivotal step toward ensuring that transgender city workers have access to comprehensive healthcare coverage just like all other city workers," Kara Coredini, Executive Director of the LGBT lobbying group MassEquality told the press.

MassResistance reaction in the press

MassResistance gave its reaction -- which was covered in the Boston Globe and Channel 5 TV. And we didn't hold back for the liberal media.

Boston Globe coverage of ordinance featured MassResistance's uncompromising reaction.

As the Boston Globe reported on April 14:

Not everyone sees the proposed ordinance as positive, or agrees that hormones and surgery are proper treatment for those who identify as transgender. The leader of MassResistance, a nonprofit conservative advocacy group in Waltham, called the proposed ordinance "a sad example of science fiction over science."

"The medical community has always considered 'gender identity' confusion as a mental health issue," said Brian Camenker, executive director of MassResistance. "Attempting to 'treat' someone with sex hormones or body mutilating surgery may please the political activists but only makes things much worse for the individual."

That evening, Boston's WCVB Channel 5 also did a report also featuring MassResistance:

In other words: What other mental health issue is treated by amputating parts of the body?

Movement's goal: Sex-change insurance coverage mandatory nationwide!

According to a number of sources, this is part of an overall strategy to eventually make coverage of transgender hormone treatments and sex-change surgery mandatory for all health insurance nationwide. The national groups "Human Rights Campaign" and "Lambda Legal" are providing ammunition for this push.

The tactics are similar to those the homosexual movement used pushing "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" non-discrimination laws throughout America. In both cases, they started with private corporations, then some small cities and towns, then bigger cities in liberal areas, and eventually capturing entire states. In this case, they sometimes start with "lower level" mandates, such as hormone treatment, and then later push for full sex-change surgery coverage.

Mandating insurance support for sex "transitioning" is being seen across the country. As the Globe reported in its article:

Transgender city workers are guaranteed medical treatment by statutes in San Francisco; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; Washington, D.C.; and other US cities, according to Andrew Cray, a policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, an independent nonpartisan educational institute in Washington, D.C . . . [R]egulators in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Oregon, and Vermont have mandated that private insurance plans in those states cover transgender health services for residents.

Trying to keep Boston's "100% pro-LGBT" rating intact

As part of that push, the national radical LGBT group Human Rights Campaign now requires cities to include sex-change operations to get their coveted 100-percent pro-LGBT rating, similar to the rating they give large corporations. And the local radical lobby will not settle for anything less, and clearly has the power to enforce that.

As the Globe reported:

An attorney for the Human Rights Campaign, a national civil rights organization, said the group this year will begin to include transgender treatment coverage for city employees as a criterion in its Municipal Equality Index, which rates cities on their inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender residents and visitors.

Last year, Boston scored a perfect 100 on the scale, but it could not do so again in 2014 without mandating that coverage, said Cathryn Oakley, the organization's legislative council for state and municipal advocacy.

Among other things, this policy would certainly attract some very disturbed people to work for the City of Boston. Is this really what the citizens want?

Is this the future? Men with hormone-induced breasts and women with hormone-induced beards march in downtown Northampton, Mass. in 2008. [MassResistance photo]

Text of ordinance: false and misleading statements as justification

As usual for these kinds of political efforts by the sexual radical movement, the text of the ordinance includes as justification a number of statements presented as "fact" which are either grossly misleading or outright false -- cleverly woven together to give the sense of serious medical data. It is Orwellian in its inversion of truth. For example:

1. It uses the weak term "gender dysphoria." The older term, "gender identity disorder," was previously the standard medical description until the LGBT movement pressured the medical community to water it down to a "dysphoria".

2. It uses the transgender organization World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) as if it were a legitimate medical resource, but in fact it is a group of radical transgender activists and medical professionals who intimidate other medical associations into accepting their "findings" (in order to be seen as non-discriminatory).

3. It lists several prominent national professional associations (American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, etc.) that they say have "consensus" that hormones and body-mutilating surgeries are "appropriate" and "effective". But none of these groups' statements point to any legitimate studies. Instead, they just commit to non-discrimination in "treating" transgender patients. But the manner of treatment is left undefined.

4. It claims that the surgery and other treatment is "the only safe and effective medical treatment option" for some people. But is it? The phenomenon of hormone injections and surgeries is so new -- only done in the last few decades -- that it is virtually impossible to claim long-term positive health outcomes. In fact, the AMA and APA admit that transgender health care is still a "controversial" area.

5. It claims that not providing these treatments brings higher risk of suicide. Where are the studies confirming that? Some research suggests the opposite. In 2010 the Journal of Homosexuality reported on a review of studies that suggest that people having "gender reassignment surgery" commit suicide at alarmingly higher rates than average. There is no question that people with gender identity disorders have a much higher suicide rate (as much as nine times higher) than the general population. Common sense would suggest that the best treatment is a mental health counseling approach, not a physical body change approach.

6. What it doesn't tell you: Over a decade ago, Johns Hopkins University Hospital completely disbanded its "sex-change" program. The program's director, Prof. Paul McHugh, wrote, "I have witnessed a great deal of damage from sex-reassignment . . . We have wasted scientific and technical resources and damaged our professional credibility by collaborating with madness rather than trying to study, cure, and ultimately prevent it." We couldn't agree more.

But will anyone in the Boston City Council challenge any of this nonsense? We don't think so.

The huge need to tell the truth

How do you fight this? As we have shown, there is at least one thing that everyone can do that makes a difference: Tell the truth without backing down.

This ordinance is an example of how the Left's world is built on lies and intimidation. They depend on the silence and fear of regular people to push their agenda. Any textbook on confronting a totalitarian environment always begins with the requirement of telling the truth without any compromise. If you just do that, you're having a positive effect! And not doing so gives their side a tighter grip on the public's perceived definition of reality.

There is a disturbing trend by pro-family groups around the country to be moderate and inoffensive when dealing with this issue, so as not to antagonize the LGBT movement and the media. They either (1) avoid the subject entirely; or (2) concede major points but quibble with a minor part of it, such as saying that transsexuals may "need" surgery but it ought not be paid for by the taxpayer; or (3) simply say that the whole thing is something they "disagree with" because of "religious freedom" or similar non-threatening reasoning. Thus, handing a victory for the other side.

Even in seemingly overwhelming circumstances like this, it is necessary to continue fighting harder than ever. We are convinced that in the long run it's worth it.

Potential (or current?) City of Boston employees marching in the Gay Pride Parade (left) and attending a transgender bill public hearing at the State House (right). [MassResistance photos]