The 80% Rule

The 80% Rule
by Raven Usher

Going through a Transsexual transition is expensive! I am not speaking of just the cost of sexual reassignment surgery (SRS). [circa $15,000] The whole experience of shelling out money through the ongoing process is like a Master Card commercial gone insane!

Hormones: $100+ per month. Therapist appointments: $90 per visit. Laser hair removal: $50 per hour. Breast augmentation: $2,500. Facial feminization surgery: $5,000. Constantly updating your wardrobe to fit your changing body form: $1,000 - $1,200 per quarter. Completing transsexual transition (if you survive it): priceless.

To add to the stress and complications of paying for it all, there are two major slaps in the face that transsexuals get hit with. The first is that no medical insurance program anywhere in the United States will cover the cost of SRS. Even when a licensed psychiatrist diagnoses the medical condition of gender dysphoria and that the need for transition is medically necessary the insurance companies will not pay their share. Sometimes prescription coverage programs will cover the hormones. But you need to have a medical doctor write the prescription. And then you have to pay for those doctor visits too.

The biggest financial setback is a horrifying statistic. 80% of all transsexuals will lose their jobs when they transition. How is that for discrimination in the workplace?

Finding a new job is not an easy undertaking either. Most trannies are forced to live off savings or other pitiful sources of income until they become passable in their new gender expression. That process takes between one and two years. That is a lot of overhead to pay out when there is little to no cash coming in.

The entire country has anti-discrimination laws that prevent someone from being fired because they are a woman. There are only a handful of laws that protect someone from being fired because they want to become a woman. The city of Boise has added gender expression to its workplace protections for civil services employees. In other words, TG’s who work for a city agency have protection at their jobs. The rest of us are still victim to the oppression of “at will” employment.

It is this workplace discrimination that hinders most TG’s from coming out of the closet. Even more than facing the possible scorn of family and friends, the prospect of being cast out of a long standing and promising career is an intimidating obstacle. It is hard enough to do something that could possibly leave you alone in the world. To face it without a source of income is salt in the wounds.

So why do we do it? Why do we throw ourselves headlong into such a body and soul battering maelstrom? Because the Master Card commercials all end with the same promise… “Completing transsexual transition: priceless!”
Blessed Be