An advocate for New Brunswick’s transgender community says it’s time the province started covering gender reassignment surgery.
Michelle Leard, a transgender woman, says she had difficulty accessing medical treatments like hormone therapy and she wants that to change.
With the help of others, she has started a network to improve the connection between the transgender and medical communities.
“We are going to emphasize the need to be recognized by our government for gender reassignment surgery,” says Leard. “It’s crucial. It will save lives.”
Leard says she began living as Michelle full-time on Nov. 9, 2013 and that the voices in her head, her “demons,” went quiet at that time.
“All of the demons that I was allowing to chase me, that I was using as a sort of means to deal with this issue, they melted away.”
New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island are the only two provinces without some level of coverage for the surgery.
Amy Otteson, a Fredericton psychologist who is part of the network, agrees that the surgery should be covered.
“I think that gender reassignment surgery for some transgender people, those who wish to have it done, is a life-or-death situation,” she says.
“So many transgender people are depressed and sick from depression and alone and afraid,” says Leard. “Suicide is incredibly high in our community.”
A recent survey conducted in the United Kingdom indicates suicide is a major risk among the transgender community, but Leard says coverage of transgender issues is improving in quality and quantity, and attitudes are slowly changing.
Leard also runs an action support group for people who are struggling with their identities – something she says she didn’t have.
“I can’t explain how good it can feel to just wake up one morning and go ‘I am who I am supposed to be.’”
With files from CTV Atlantic's David Bell
