The key issue arising from episode 3 of My Transsexual Summer is that of funding for surgery. Lewis and Fox both need “top surgery” (breast removal) if they are to be able to live without painful bindings and baggy t-shirts to disguise their shape. Lewis applied to the NHS for funding and was turned down.
Before getting into the issues here I’d like to point out that both lads have set up online appeals for help. If you have enjoyed the programmes (bearing in mind than none of the MT7 were paid for their involvement) you might consider donating. (And of course you might anyway, non-UK friends.) Lewis’s appeal is currently frozen for bureaucratic reasons — he needs to link his bank account to PayPal — but he’ll get that fixed soon, and Fox’s is still open. You can find them here:
The GoFundMe site accepts PayPal and debit/credit cards.
So, what are the issues here? Well first of all it is by no means certain that Lewis’s local NHS Trust was within its rights to refuse him funding. Other trans people have had the surgery funded. It is quite possible that if Lewis dug his heels in and got help then he’d be able to force the NHS to cough up. Certainly my activist friends have been telling him that’s what he should do. And from a political point of view such decisions need to be challenged, otherwise all funding for treatment of gender issues could be stopped.
From a personal point of view, however, individuals may choose to go private. One obvious reason for this is time. The NHS, as is often the case, has waiting lists. Going private means you can get your surgery much more quickly.
Also NHS funding for gender affirmation operations is highly contentious. One of the top tweets from last night was from someone who said he supported trans people, but did not think they should get NHS money. Whatever you think of that attitude, the fact that the tweet was popular shows that many people share that view. Members of the MT7 may take the view that they don’t want to risk the massive public support that they have by challenging the NHS.
For the record, most of my treatment, including my surgery, was paid for privately. When I was living in Australia I wasn’t eligible for public health care, and back when I transitioned the NHS was a lot less friendly to trans people than it is now. I was lucky enough to be given the money for the surgery by my mother, who in turn had got lucky during the financial services boom of the 90s.
For my own part I don’t want to make judgements about individuals. I can see the political arguments for and against challenging NHS decisions, but I think that individual trans people have enough to cope with. In particular the MT7 have given themselves over to the cause in a massive way. I’m happy to leave them to decide how they want to go forward from here.
In the meantime, I’m off to donate to Fox, and Lewis as soon as he can accept money again.