Judge rules taxpayers must pay for transgender surgeries

FPI / August 26, 2019

An Obama-appointed judge has determined that Wisconsin’s taxpayers are on the hook for sex reassignment surgery for some trans persons.

U.S. District Judge William M. Conley ruled that Medicaid cannot exclude transgender surgery and related treatment such as hormone therapy to low-income residents in Wisconsin, The Gateway Pundit reported on Aug. 25.

The ruling came after two transgender Wisconsin residents filed a lawsuit accusing Medicaid of providing them with inferior healthcare because they were denied surgery and other treatment for their severe “gender dysphoria.”

Conley had issued a preliminary injunction and ordered the taxpayers of Wisconsin to pay for the sex reassignment surgeries for both of the individuals while their cases worked their way through the legal system.

The judge last week issued a permanent ruling citing guidelines issued by the World Professional Association of Transgender Health to treat transsexual, transgender and gender nonconforming people.

Judicial Watch reported: “The ruling culminates a lawsuit filed more than a year ago by two transgender Wisconsinites, who accuse the federal and state-funded insurance program of providing them with disparate and inferior health care on the basis of sex. Cody Flack of Green Bay and Sara Makenzie of Baraboo say they suffer from severe gender dysphoria that requires costly surgery.

“Flack, a woman, claims to be ashamed of her breasts and wants to have them surgically removed as she transitions into a man’s body. To make a case for the government to pay for her surgery, she claims that she engages in ‘binding,’ which flattens her breasts and causes sores, skin irritation and respiratory distress. Flack also has difficulty binding her breasts due to a disability, according to court documents.

“Makenzie, a man who legally changed his name to Sara and wears women’s clothing, says his ‘male-appearing genitalia’ causes him ‘great distress’ and negatively affects his sexuality and social life. Showering and seeing his body in a mirror is ‘painful,’ court records state, and Makenzie fears someone will be able to see his ‘male genitals’ through his clothing.”

Conley wrote in the ruling that “gender dysphoria is a serious medical condition, which if left untreated can cause adverse symptoms. As a group, transgender individuals have been subjected to harassment and discrimination in virtually every aspect of their lives, including in housing, employment, education, and health care.”

Conley continued: “Their own families, acquaintances and larger communities can be sources of harassment. For some transgender individuals, though certainly not all, the dissonance between their gender identity and their naturally assigned sex can manifest itself in the form of gender dysphoria, a serious medical condition recognized by both sides’ experts and the larger medical community as a whole.”

Free Press International