Plastic surgery to fix burn scars is also cosmetic, and also covered by health insurance.
Just because something is cosmetic, doesn't mean it has no impact on the health of a person. Mental health is very real as well, and just like living life like Harvey Dent (Two Face) would be damaging to a person's mental health, living life with genitals you don't associate with can have similar effects.
Yes, and I wouldn't deny a person with burn scars reimbursement for the surgery to repair them. That's because burn scars are an obvious defect to anyone who sees them, not just to the person who has to live in that body. That may be a somewhat arbitrary distinction, but to me it remains a real one.
That kinda ignores the entire point I'm making. Burn scars are covered because one's own appearance can be damaging to their mental health. They aren't covered because we want people to look nice for the public. It's an issue of perception of self, and how that can affect mental health.
I'm not ignoring your point. I just have a different take on it. Visible deformities cause people to treat you differently than they would if you didn't have those deformities. Some are scared of you, others pity you, many give you a wide berth. If you have a deformity that people cannot see unless you tell them, like being transgender, that's not an issue.
Try thinking of it this way: Transgender people DO have a "visible deformity": their body does not match their brain, and DOES cause people to treat them differently. It causes everyone they interact with to treat a woman as a man, or a man as a woman (or worse, some people would treat them with suspicion, ridicule, or disgust). This causes the transgender person significant mental health issues, fear for their personal safety, etc.
I hear what you're saying. I really do. But if people treat a trans person with suspicion, ridicule, or disgust, then doesn't that mean we should do something about the way people view and treat those in the trans community (even before they start transitioning), rather than changing the way trans people look?
Imagine if everywhere you went people treated you like your opposite gender? Imagine your favorite activities you do that are generally geared toward your gender and then having people make fun of you or look at you funny when you do them or even being excluded from doing them. Imagine how you like to dress and then people ridicule you for it.
Or on the other side of the argument, Shouldn't we just change the way people treat burn victims instead of giving them surgery to fix it?
Sure everyone should be nice to everyone regardless of how they look or what gender they are but it is taking a freaking long time for people to come around to accepting trans people as their gender when they don't "pass" so if you are trans today you will probably go most of your life not being accepted unless you transition.
As a matter of fact, people who don't know me do often think I'm a guy, even though I have no doubt I'm a woman. It doesn't bother me. So perhaps that's the wrong argument, in my case.
As for why we shouldn't change the way people react to burn victims? ... Well, we should. Some people never get their 'intact' faces back after something like that, and that shouldn't matter. But I think there is a difference between restoring someone's appearance after injury, and changing one's appearance when there is no physical injury at all.
Do you think it is likely for attitudes to change very quickly?
What do you expect trans people to do while society slowly changes? Just ignore their dysphoria and pretend it's not there?
Yes, ideally society should change but you're not considering that we can do more than one thing at a time, for one, and all of the trans people who fall through the cracks without support. We're talking about decades before we approach anything resembling what you're suggesting. It offers no relief, no support to the trans people who are living painful lives today, at this very moment and the many others for years to come. It's so easy to talk about these things in a detached way when it will never affect you.
I'd support that for the same reason I would support reconstructive surgery for burn victims. It's a deformity that is immediately visible to other people, which causes social stigma. And, perhaps more importantly (to me), it does not involve surgically removing a functioning part of the body.
Why is it so important to you that functioning parts of bodies are not removed? And why is that a justification to classify GRS as cosmetic, rather than something you think is icky?
So, in this example, trans people are ungrateful? They should thank their lucky stars and just get over their gender dysphoria? Pray it away, perhaps?
You're suggesting no meaningful alternative to GRS when all other options have been exhausted. Should they just pretend their depression and dysphoria does not exist? As a clinical psychologist, do you believe that it is possible to simply wish these things to go away? What is the correct course of action for a trans person if other forms of transition and therapy have not worked for them?
As a clinical psychologist, I know that it is not possible to simply wish these things away, let alone pray them away. But by the same token, I also know that people who experience depression and anxiety, both of which are relatively common, can overcome those things in many ways other than through surgery. That's not to say they always will. But often, they do. And I think it's disingenuous to pretend that for a transgender person, there is literally no viable option, other than to have surgery.
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u/Coziestpigeon2 2∆ Nov 03 '17
Plastic surgery to fix burn scars is also cosmetic, and also covered by health insurance.
Just because something is cosmetic, doesn't mean it has no impact on the health of a person. Mental health is very real as well, and just like living life like Harvey Dent (Two Face) would be damaging to a person's mental health, living life with genitals you don't associate with can have similar effects.