San Francisco to Provide, Cover Costs of Transgender Surgery

Will become first U.S. city to do so

San Francisco will begin providing and covering the cost of sex reassignment surgeries for uninsured transgender residents. San Francisco already provides transgender residents with hormones and counseling, but has stopped short of surgical offerings like mastectomies or genital reconstructions. The city's Health Commission voted Tuesday to create a comprehensive program for treating transgender people experiencing mental distress because of the mismatch between their bodies and their gender identities. Public Health Director Barbara Garcia said Thursday, "The community felt the exclusion on Healthy San Francisco was discriminatory and we wanted to change that as the first step." (AP)

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