“Change is our friend!” I don’t know how many times you have heard this statement, but it is one I have heard several times in the past two years. The first time I heard it, I was sitting in a department meeting and my supervisor said “education has to always be changing to keep up with the latest developments or forever be behind the times, “change is our friend’”. Since then, this seems to be the favorite little “buzz” phrase at work. It then seemed appropriate for some of my co-workers to use this phrase when they learned of my changing situations; first my divorce and second, when they learned the true reason for my divorce. It now is appropriate to use this phrase again as a new person (and hopefully not the last) takes the helm as the Twenty Club Newsletter editor. Realizing that every person has a different way of expressing themselves, I will be making some changes to the newsletter. As minor or major as they may be, I hope you continue to enjoy the newsletter and give it your total support. With these changes, remember, “change is our friend”.

Purple, red, and blue in all it’s hue,
Is what we call our colors, and we stand by true.
It doesn’t matter what country you come from,
If you stand for freedom, you can march to the drum.
You can pick up the message or leave it by the side,
We are here to tell you we aren’t going to hide.
No backlash slack jack, with bad breath in my face,
Can make me feel I’m not part of the human race.
What the congregation says or the people on the street don’t matter,
Our claws are sharp and we aren’t going to scatter.
We aren’t in a competition or running a race,
We’re in for the distance and we’re keeping our pace.
We all have our beliefs, even the Pope.
I come from Rhode Island, the state flag is hope.
We can all live together in peace and harmony,
If we don’t be so judgmental and let other people be.
Putting other people down can make some feel better.
Cut slack, jump back, be free of the fetter.
Honor and dignity we should never neglect,
To treat our neighbors with a little respect.
When our life is over and the time has come,
We all have to account and answer to the great one.
If you don’t believe in the Great Spirit,that is OK too.
If you don’t mess with me, I won’t mess with you.
Just don’t aggres on me I must warn everyone,
I wear my colors with pride and they don’t run.

Legal Precedent Set in New York State
Many people have inquired as to the status of insurance coverage for SRS. At present, if your medical insurance secifically excludes SRS coverage in their master policy statement, you are not covered. You may avoid hassles on other matters (i.e., prescriptions and psychological counseling/assessment) by asking your provider to judiciously word the claim form submitted in your behalf. If no specific mention of SRS is made in your policy, however, then you may successfully argue for full coverage or, alternately - if your insurer is obstinate - you should at least negotiate for partial reimbursement. you have nothing to lose by being assertive, and possibly much to gain. Remember, one way or another you are paying for this coverage. If your coverage originates in New York State, because you live or work there, and if your policy does not specifically exclude SRS, then you must be afforded full coverage, in line with that provided for any other legitimate medical procedure. This is mandated by the finding in Davidson vs. Aetna, as detailed below. This decision, which set a precedent, has been relied upon by other jurisdictions as well, for guidance. Unfortunately, this ruling is not binding in other jurisdictions, but you may introduce it in support of your argument: Victoria L. Davidson vs. Aetna Life & Casualty Insurance Co., 101 misc. 2d 1, 420 N.Y.S. 2d 450 (Sup. CT. 1979) The first [U.S.] case cited involving a private health carrier was decided by the New York Supreme Court in 1979. Davidson’s insurance carrier, Aetna Life Insurance Company, refused to bear the cost of medical expenses for sex reassignment surgery (SRS), alleging: 1.) Gender dysphoria is not an injury; 2.) Transexual surgery is cosmetic in nature; 3.) Surgical intervention is not necessary and unreasonable. The court ruled in favor of Davidson, finding the surgery “cannot be considered to be of a strictly cosmetic nature”, and that the “sex change operation of the plaintiff is of a medical nature and is feasible and required for the health and well-being of the plaintiff”.

Dear Madam:
While perusing a recent issue (June, 1996) of that renowned scientific journal, Reader’s Digest, I chanced to come across the name “Janice Raymond” in an article about lurid, untrue rumors that are spread by journalists acting unprofessionally and irresponsibly. The article, “A Lie That Won’t Go Away”, dealt with the alleged (but false) rumor that rich Americans were procuring Third World children to kill/scavenge for transplanted body parts.

Specifically [p.91]:

“...(person A & person B), two journalists who had written virulent articles spreading the fiction, both admitted to Reader’s Digest that they had no proof. That was the case, too, with Janice Raymond, a professor of women’s studies and medical ethics at the University of Massachusetts who suggested in Organ Snatchers that illicit transplants were being carried out on large scale in private U.S. clinics. When asked about her sources, Raymond said, “I’m just guessing”.

Is this possibly the same Janice Raymond who gave us The Transsexual Empire a number of years ago? Name’s the same. Method’s the same. Wild polemics the same. Ignorance the same.

Perhaps, if she’s as near by as UMass, we could get her in as a speaker? Should help attendance, if not enlightenment and understanding. Women’s studies and ethics - medical or otherwise - are timely topics for our community, too...

The Honorable John G. Rowland
Governor of Connecticut
Executive Offices
210 Capitol Avenue
Hartford, CT 06106
June 25, 1996

Dear Governor Rowland:
As President of the XX (Twenty) Club, the peer support group of the Gender Identity Clinic of New England, Inc., I am writing to express strong unanimous concern of our members regarding statements and actions by you and your staff, as reported in the public news media, on the issue of “Gay Pride”.

In particular, your specific references to “transgender [sic] people” displays a level of ignorance and insensitivity not in keeping with the standards of comity and leadership expected of our state’s highest elected official. Further, your staff’s quoted reference to a “second-grade class” represents a thinly-veiled effort to denigrate certain groups of people who are all too often treated as second-class citizens, minorities unworthy of recognition or mention in “polite” company - people who, like others in the past, must constantly struggle to overcome the social and legal impediments they face on a pervasive, continuing basis.

In full recognition of your position on the issues of sex and gender expression, may I offer - not as criticism or condemnation, but rather in a spirit of understanding and conciliation - an opportunity for you and your staff to learn more about the medical, social, and legal aspects that affect transgenderd people by providing informed, up-to-date information that you may not yet be aware of?

Please find enclosed two articles that were recently published in our Newsletter: the first addresses our organization’s Speaker’s Bureau, whose purpose is to provide “knowledgeable information...in hope of gaining greater understanding and acceptance of...gender dysphoria”. The second deals with ongoing scientific advances that may help to alleviate or overcome the widespread prejudicial attitudes regarding gender dysphoria, which is in fact a medical issue that directly involves trained, experienced, professional healthcare researchers and clinical providers in resolving its etiology, diagnosis and treatment.

As you may know, our people - through no fault of their own - are daily subject to the effects of social and legal discrimination, in areas ranging from employment, housing, and access to public accommodations, to overt harassment, brutilization, and outright violent physical attack, leading in several recent instances to cold-blooded murder. These tragic occurrences are precipitated and encouraged by uninformed attitudes such as those demonstrated by your recent public words and actions, which may be interpreted by some as condoning such negative treatment of those they deem less than-human.

As a long Connecticut resident, loving parent, responsible citizen, and registered Republican voter, I respectfully urge you to reconsider your position on the issue of “Gay Pride” in general and “Transgendered People” in particular, in order that we as people and citizens of this state may better work together to foster an atmosphere of goodwill, tolerance and understanding; so that we ALL may enjoy the benefits of those principles of freedom and equality set forth over two hundred years ago, that so many have struggled and sacrificed for, to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”. All too often, we fall far short of these noble goals.

On behalf of the Twenty Club, I offer you and your staff the opportunity to respond, correspond or perhaps meet with us to discuss and share relevant information and differing points of view, in hopes of promoting better understanding based upon factual knowledge rather than uninformed, incorrect and outdated assumptions and attitudes. We would welcome any good-faith response on your part as an important step toward improving the [at best, imperfect] climate that clouds these issues. this involves not merely matters of partisan politics or differing opinions regarding “cultural lifestyles”, but rather fundamental questions of basic human rights, personal aspirations, and individual dignity.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Jennifer A., Ph.D.
President
The XX (Twenty) Club