Province cowards for failing to cover sex-change surgeries (Ottawa Citizen)

Critics call province cowards for failing to cover sex-change surgeries

Keith Leslie
Ottawa Citizen

Thursday, November 18, 2004

TORONTO -- Ontario's Liberal government has "chickened out" of reinstating medicare coverage for sex change operations for fear of a public backlash, deputy NDP leader Marilyn Churley charged Thursday.

Churley accused the Liberals of backing off a pledge while in opposition to restore funding for the procedures, which left numerous patients in the lurch when they were delisted by the previous Conservative government in 1997.

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"They promised they'd reverse that decision," but backed out amid a storm of controversy over the more heavily publicized -- and criticized -- move last May to delist chiropractic services, physiotherapy and eye exams, she said.

"They reneged on their promise because they were cowards."

Churley joined several dozen lesbians, gays, bisexuals and members of Toronto's transgendered community Thursday as they rallied to demand the province restore coverage for the procedure under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan.

One of the protesters, Toronto resident Susan Gapka, complained he's been waiting more than five years to undergo the surgery necessary to become a woman.

"I'm very disappointed we have to wait," Gapka said.

"I think it's really important, whether I want the surgery or not, that I have access to that health-care procedure."

Health Minister George Smitherman had promised to reinstate coverage when the Liberals were in opposition, and he criticized the Mike Harris Conservatives for delisting sexual reorientation surgery in the late 1990s.

"I have considerable empathy with the situation that's there for those individuals," said Smitherman, who is openly gay.

"I know many of them personally, and I think they are some of the most courageous people that I know in society."

But he insisted the government must wait for the Ontario Human Rights Commission to complete a hearing on the issue before deciding if it should pay for the procedure, also known as sex reassignment surgery.

"There will be, perhaps, a day when there will be an opportunity to be more involved in the debate," said Smitherman. "But that's all I've got to say today."

Churley noted that Human Rights Commissioner Keith Norton has already said the government is violating Ontario's human rights code by not paying for the surgery.

At the very least, the Liberals should have agreed to pay for surgeries for people who were left part way through their sexual reorientation when the Conservatives delisted the surgery, Churley added.

"That's even more shocking, that the Liberals right away didn't at least reverse it for those that were caught up literally in the middle of very serious medical procedures," she said.

"The fact they have not re-listed this feeds into that misunderstanding and discrimination that's already out there against this marginalized, misunderstood community."

Province cowards for failing to cover sex-change