Game Over

Once again, Suzan Cooke just doesn't get it.  In the post "Game Changer" Cooke says:

When “Classic Transsexuals/HBSers” started calling me names because I refused to continue playing the trashing people with transgenderism game since people with transsexualism are supposed to be superior and not just another oppressed group, I started seeing this as part of how the right wing has kept everyone down.

The disagreements people have with Cooke is not because we think we are superior.  It is simply because we know we have nothing in common with those who are transgender, and we don't want any part of that movement.  To suggest we are superior, is to suggest that we are comparable.  We simply are not, and don't care for the suggestion that we are.

Transgender is about being something is one is not.  Transsexual is about being what one really is.  Those who are transgender have a seemingly overwhelming need to cling to their past, and even their present, as their birth sex.  Transsexuals want to correct things, and move forward.

Cooke's post is based on an article by the transgender kook "Antonia D'orsay" who posts under the name Dyssonance.  In his article, he says:

What if the game changed, though? What if all those transsexuals could get surgery without a problem — it was taken care of with the same dispassionate efficiency of treating the flu.

“ok, we’re going to do your surgery next Tuesday at 10. Your copay is 150, sign here.”

Well, setting aside that fact that "Dyssonance" seems to be suggesting surgery on demand, which would result in a vast number of regrets and which would probably end the possiblity of surgery for everyone, the simple answer is, "It wouldn't change a thing."

How do I know?  Just over four years ago, that was pretty much my experience.  My co-pay was $250, but yes, like an increasing number of employers, mine provides coverage for SRS.  I was the first MTF to take advantage of the option.  I know of one other who did.  The simple fact is, there were, at the very least, six other people who were "potential candidates."  None, as far as I am aware, have taken advantage.  That is, six people, all MTFs, who were "transgender" who could have had their surgery for $250 or so, who didn't bother.

People have SRS because they need it badly enough to do what it takes to get it.  In my case, I worked at a job that was half-time, and which paid me considerably less that I could have made elsewhere.  Since having my surgery, I have become full time, and make considerably more money.  But in order to get my surgery, I put up with a lot.

The idea that if it were less expensive, more would have surgery is simply not true.  This has been shown, time after time, when transgender types, including some very well known activists, have spent money that could have paid for a trip to an excellent doctor in Thailand on something they wanted more, like a fancy car, or a new house.  Of course, they continue to whine about how, if only their insurance would pay for it....

It wouldn't change a thing.