genitalia

I'm carrying on an interesting conversation on another one of the websites that I run. We were talking about the age-old dilemma of how do we define gender? He wrote about the sheriff's department in his county that is attempting to develop some policies for transgender prisoners. 

To rely upon genitalia for deciding gender is essentialist bullshit. What about intersex people with ambiguous genitalia? Think of it this way: What about the Bobbits of the world? Is he now a woman because his dick was cut off? Of course not. If a woman has a hysterectomy, does that make her male? Believe it or not, many women think it does. If a woman wears a strap-on, does that make her a man? If so, I bet alot of women would be packing in the workplace if it meant they'd be paid the same as their male counterparts.

To rely upon genitalia with regard to transpeople is also a class issue. As it stands now, health insurance policies that pay for transition costs are very rare. In fact, it is commonly listed as a specific exclusion in most policies thanks in no small part to Janice Raymond and others of her ilk who argued that we were just psychotic and that the medical community should not humor us by giving us medically appropriate care. This means that our healthcare visits are paid out of pocket, unless our providers code it as something else. Transpeople have to pay full-price for hormones which can run over $2k/yr. Considering that transpeople are unemployed or underemployed at double the rate of society, not many of us can afford to get the medically necessary care that we need.

My top surgery costs close to $8k, none of it covered by insurance. Bottom surgery would cost anywhere from $10k-$100k, depending upon which method I'd choose. I'm super-fortunate that the surgeon who did my hysto was able to get the insurance company to cover it so I paid about $500 out of pocket for a $25k surgery.

Unfortunately, the surgery is still rather primitive for FTMs and most of us are not in the mood for taking a risk of loss of erotic sensation for something that doesn't really look like a penis and doesn't function like a penis (well, I could pee out of it but would need a rod inserted to make it hard enough for sex). If interested, look up metoidioplasty or phalloplasty to
see what is available to FTMs. I think women are paying around $15-25k for all of the surgery that they need. 

Your sheriff's department should look at the King County, Washington incarceration policy. Many transpeople were involved in the development of the policy so I think it serves as a pretty good example for how to respectfully treat transpeople during their incarceration. It is by no means perfect and would probably sue some revision but it is far better than the policy in the county of my friend.