Janet Mock: Chelsea Manning & Transgender Health Care In & Out of Prison

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I am an uninsured trans woman. I have been so for most of my life. All healthcare-related expenses I incurred throughout my adolescence and my adulthood were paid for out-of-pocket. When I was insured under my mother’s intermittent employment plan and later my own as an adult, I didn’t have access to a physician who understood my specific needs and was told that the life-changing and life-saving procedures I needed were not considered “medically necessary.”

Today, Chelsea Manning, the Army private sentenced to 35 years in military prison for leaking classified documents, joins me and thousands of trans women, trans men and trans folks who have had to (and continue to) fight against the bias and stigma that prevents us from having access to quality healthcare. This morning, Manning announced through a statement on NBC’s Today show that she is female, that her name is Chelsea and that she plans to undergo hormone therapy, vital treatments her lawyer David Coombs told Today‘s Savannah Guthrie he will “do everything in my power to ensure” she has access to.

This essay is not about the WikiLeaks case, about Chelsea’s actions, about whether she is a hero or a traitor. Like Chelsea (who chose not to reveal she was a trans woman during her trial) I choose not to discuss the specifics of Chelsea’s trial as I feel it will “overshadow” the task at hand: the devaluing and disregard of trans people’s bodies.

Much more at: http://janetmock.com/2013/08/22/chelsea-manning-transgender-healthcare/