Decidedly Obscure Human Complaints.

As I mentioned in my most recent post, I'm not able to update this as often as I really want to. I absolutely love blogging, but by the time I'm done with my graduate school tasks for the day, I become a collapsed puddle of human, incapable of uttering a single word. But I had to log on this once to share some incredibly exciting news. Earlier yesterday I learned that my insurance (through the marketplace) has preauthorized me FOR A HYSTERECTOMY IN EARLY AUGUST.  For over six years now I've been struggling through years of no insurance coverage as a student and then one trans-exclusive, discriminatory policy after another. Even as a federal employee. Yet finally, at long last, this is actually happening. It doesn't feel real yet, but I'm beyond ecstatic. I'm actually scheduled for surgery!  Whaaaa??? There are a gazillion risks reduced and benefits from having this done, one of which will be lowering my dose of testosterone post surgery, which is ...

I had the opportunity to attend the Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference for the first time this past weekend. It was incredible, to have the privilege to experience such an indescribable sense of connectedness among so many trans* and cisgender persons. I heard from the grapevine that 3,000+ people were in attendance, which is apparently up from around 2,000 last year. I was particularly impressed by the vast spectrum of activities offered. There was youth programming, all day programming with specific schedules (e.g. community space, spirituality space, native/first nations/indigenous gathering space), evening events, vendors galore, a gazillion different workshops, and so on. There was something for everyone! For instance, I attended the conference with two friends who wanted to learn more about how to become better cisgender allies. One chum is a pastor living in Kansas and the other is a researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). While my researcher friend an...

It's been a while since identification documents have been a source of stress for me, but I received an e-mail recently from the NIH informing everyone that our paperwork for employment is now being processed by human resources. This is only the second time since transitioning that I've gone through the employment process, and the first time around was a little bumpy. In a nutshell, my paperwork was flagged , and I discovered that it was due to having gender-incongruent identification. Meaning, my gender is male on my driver's license and birth certificate, but female on my social security record. This put me in a position where my trans status was disclosed without my consent and also significantly delayed my start date and first paycheck. Fortunately, my employer isn't trans-discriminatory and I was able to sustain myself economically longer than I'd anticipated, but the whole ordeal made it clearer than ever how problematic identification documents can perpetu...

Had the most difficult time getting my prescription refill (testosterone cypionate) this time around. Generally I just wander in to the pharmacy and request my refill, give them money, take bag of needles and prescription, and head off into the world. But when I attempted to refill this time around ON injection day I was told, “Oh, you’re out of refills. Oh, and your doctor won’t authorize a refill until you make an appointment with her.” Oh, alright. Fair enough. Except that I'm due for a shot - today. And came in today because I couldn't afford it prior, as I was just paid. When I tried to schedule an appointment with her I was told, “You owe us money. It’s in collections. Here’s their number.” What? From when? Where? Whyyyyy is this the first time I’ve heard of it and it’s in collections !? Turns out, even though my doctor’s office had my current address and name - they had never communicated that to billing. So here I was, bumbling along assuming that all of my info i...