This is the first time I ever saw more guys than gals. You seem to always have 3 or 4 women and occasionally 2 and 2 guys/girls. What are you afraid guys will beat the shit out of you or something? Com'on!

However, I don't fault you for thinking that way, because that is about the stock of knowledge about trans people floating around in the public consciousness. Most of you have probably never actually met a trans person, or have met maybe one but never two or three, maybe one came into your work, or you heard your best friend's brother's nephew wears girls clothes now. This is real, and often you don't even know you're talking to us. We're musicians and scientists and business women and waitresses and sometimes a freaking wreck, but most of the time we're pretty cool, and if you ask us about it we're glad to tell you what it's like. And then you'll see what we have to go through, and might even hear about how invisible, how marginalized we feel, often reduced to a body part when all we want to do is assemble the parts to make the whole. That's a pun.

But Rachel, we can't be explosive, even though it's so easy. I know, you know, how easy it is to be infuriated by other people's ignorance, but until this whole thing gets figured out, we bear the responsibility of imparting that knowledge, and making it palatable and true. We need to make it easy for everyone to be able to talk to each other about this.

I agree, Rachel. Surgery is not elective, not only do most insurance companies exclude surgery, but usually also trans care, like hormones. Ok, so I can deal with that through Mazzoni Center, but the fact remains that transgender-related care was a line-item exclusion on my company's insurance policy. Who exactly is it who gets to say where we draw the line between cosmetic and something that drains on your ability to function and carry out hope and a healthy future.

But what's more important is, as Rachel said, the nature of the commentary on trans issues. The problem begins with the public's lack of understanding and language to talk about the subject. Trans people are often invisible, a minority within a minority in the queer community, not accepted as real men and women by lesbians and straight women, men who see them as sex objects, and fellow female coworkers. Quite frankly, I'd like to be able to sleep with another woman and have my whole body be lined up with that thing that women do when they sleep with each other. The first thing people ask me when I begin to explain to them I'm trans is in regards to my genitalia. It'd be nice, one time, to be able to say, "Yes, my body is 100% female," which is my very polite way of saying, "Actually, I have a vagina," a response they weren't expecting to their ridiculously rude question. That's identity, and that's the fiber of our being, and we know because before you know anything else about me, my response to that question is going to determine who I am in your eyes. And you're going to call that "cosmetic"?

Or even to say, "Only if it's a serious medical condition." "You are severely disfigured, but you have a great personality, so surgery for you is entirely cosmetic," or "You have scoliosis but can still walk, so to straighten your back isn't that serious." Seriously, people, who has their genitals chopped off or resculpted cosmetically? It's not a nose, or a funny looking mole. And I'm sorry: as a citizen just like you I'm not ok with instituting a law putting my identity in someone else's hands. What battery of tests is allowed to tell me how well I know myself? "Sorry, our MMPI inventory shows that you're not actually trans, you just have really great bone structure."

However, I don't fault you for thinking that way, because that is about the stock of knowledge about trans people floating around in the public consciousness. Most of you have probably never actually met a trans person, or have met maybe one but never two or three, maybe one came into your work, or you heard your best friend's brother's nephew wears girls clothes now. This is real, and often you don't even know you're talking to us. We're musicians and scientists and business women and waitresses and sometimes a freaking wreck, but most of the time we're pretty cool, and if you ask us about it we're glad to tell you what it's like. And then you'll see what we have to go through, and might even hear about how invisible, how marginalized we feel, often reduced to a body part when all we want to do is assemble the parts to make the whole. That's a pun.

When I first read the top two people's responses I was pissed off to say the least. Mr. Hayward apparently doesn't have clue about what trans people like myself must go through to have surgery. Evaluation? It's called the WPATH Standards of Care. Do people think we just walk into a Dr.s office and they just hand us everything? If it's not for cosmetic reasons!!! Are you serious!!??? COnstructing a vagina from a penis is not a cosmetic operation. Do you have any clue what we must do in order to have this operation? Again check the WPATH standards of care. You can't simply just go and have it!!! Breast implants, nose jobs, brow lifts now they are cosmetic. Medical necessity? Your kidding me? Is surgery to repair a heart valve a medical necessity? How about to fix a birth defect? Gender Dysphoria is a medical condition. And then there's Mr. health adivsor Lopez. It's elective surgery? It is the only known cure for gender dysphoria and if not gotten leads to far too many suicides. So many more of us would have surgery if we wer all covered by health insurance. I wonder if Mr. Lopez woke up tomorrow morning with a vagina instead of a penis he would want his penis back? Well Mr. Lopez I was born with a birth defect called a penis and it needed to fixed so I could feel like a whole human being. And your a health advisor for who? The walking dead?