TransJustice activists fight for health care

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5) Reduce the workweek to 30 hours with no cut in pay, and cut the retirement age to 55. Provide unemployment and retirement payments at We propose an EMERGENCY CONGRESS OF LABOR to discuss and 6) To combat inflation: A sliding scale of wages and pensions that match­ 1) Bail out the people, not the bankers! Open the account books of the es the rises in comsumer prices. To combat high medical costs: A free, banks to full public inspection. Nationalize the banks to be supervised by 7) Immediate citizenship for all undocumented workers. No job discrimi­ 2) No foreclosures! No forced evictions! Cancel usurious debt payments, nation; equal pay for equal work — regardless of gender, sexual orienta­ and reduce mortgage payments in proportion to their capitalist-caused 8) Nationalize manufacturing, big agribusiness, energy, and transporta­ 3) Full employment at union wages! An emergency public works program tion corporations and place them under the control of elected committees to employ all jobless workers and youth! Employ people to build what we need — low-cost quality housing, efficient mass transportation, cheap and 9) To mobilize support for the demands it adopts, the EMERGENCY renewable sources of power, schools, clinics — and to conserve our water, CONGRESS should organize ACTION COMMITTEES in every workplace and neighborhood threatened by the crisis. These committees can draw up 4) Immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops and mercenaries from Iraq & Afghanistan! No war on Iran! Close all U.S. bases abroad! No money for 10) To put all these measures into effect, we need a LABOR PARTY — the military — use funds instead for public works! Convert the war indus­ based on a fighting union movement and all people who are oppressed tries to making products for people’s needs and to combat global warming.

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2 SOCIALIST ACTION SEPTEMBER 2013 TransJustice activists are working on a lot of issues, and a major one is health care. The United States is very far behind countries with national health-care systems, as most of these countries cover whatever transgender people need without prejudice.

The Transgender Law Center is a major resource for information about the prob­ lems encountered in access to care in our private insurance system.

Many health insurance companies just deny transgender applicants who apply to their plans. Even in San Francisco, which is a relatively transgender-friendly city, 51% of transgender people have no form of health insurance. This means they do not even have access for generally covered rou­ tine care. Repairing a knee ligament with­ out insurance is about $25,000.

Another problem is that in most states public and pri­ vate health insurance has what the industry calls “Trans­ gender Exclusion.” This means they will not cover any transition-related procedures or care. All treatment is out of pocket, which can be prohibitive, and often because of the cost transgender persons will resort to the black mar­ ket to get their hormones or even surgery. This can result in great harm or even death.

There are also examples of health-insurance companies that define the Transgender Exclusion very broadly. So there are examples in which coverage of a broken arm is denied because the insurance company assumes any health problems are due to transgender status.

The problem of transphobic medical providers means that often the transgendered person will avoid going to the doctor; so they do not even receive cancer screenings A WORKERS’ ACTION PROGRAM TO FIGHT THE CRISIS take steps to implement the following demands — workers’ committees.

decline in value.

forests, farmland, and open space.

SOCIALIST ACTION Closing news date: Sept. 3, 2013 Editor: Michael Schreiber Canada Editor: Barry Weisleder designed, and laid out entirely by volunteer labor.

­— $37 for two years Name Address City State Zip Phone E-mail I enclose an extra contribution of: — $100 — $200 — Other or gynecological care.

These are some of the issues that TransJustice activ­ ists work with every day. They were encouraged when they were told by officials in the Obama administration that they “believed” that the nondiscrimination laws in Obamacare would protect transgendered people. How­ ever, the day after Pvt. Manning announced she would be seeking hormone therapy, a spokesperson for the Army stated that they would “not provide hormone therapy or re-assignment surgery for Gender Dysphoria.”

After doing further research, activists found that the nondiscrimination section in Obamacare specifically does not require health-insurance companies to pay for gender reassignment surgery, hormone therapy, or “other services.” More people need to join the movement both for TransJustice and against a health-care system based on profit. n the level of union wages and benefits.

universal, public health-care system.

tion, skin color, or national origin.

of workers. • Ashland, Ore.: [email protected] • Boston: [email protected] (781) 630-0250 • Carrboro, N.C.: (919) 967-2866, [email protected] • Chicago: P.O. Box 578428 Chicago, IL 60657, [email protected] • Connecticut: (860) 478-5300 • Duluth, Minn.: [email protected]. www.thenorthernworker.blogspot.com • Kansas City: [email protected] (816) 221-3638 • LOUISVILLE, KY.: [email protected], (502) 451-2193 • Madison, Wis.:

[email protected] • Mankato, Minn.:

[email protected] • Minneapolis/St. Paul: (612) 802-1482, [email protected] • New York City: (212) 781-5157 Lynne Stewart filed her third application for compassionate release on Sept. 1. Her request was submitted to Warden Jody Upton at FMC Car­ swell, the medical prison where Stewart has been incarcerated for the past three years.

Stewart’s first application was rejected by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) on the grounds that her health had “improved.” Stewart, a courageous 30year civil-liberties attorney, is dying from terminal metastasized breast cancer.

Her appeal of the BOP fabrication was rejected by her original sentencing judge, John Koeltl, who cited technical reasons preventing him from inter­ vening. With new medical reports verifying Stew­ art’s continuing decline, she filed a second request for compassionate release, only to be rejected once again based on bureaucratic prison regulations. Stewart’s third appeal will be based almost ex­ clusively on further evidence of medical decline, since the BOP’s new and touted “liberalized” compassionate release standards are so limited as to barely improve Stewart’s chances for freedom. Stewart is a frame-up victim, jailed for 10 years on frame-up charges of conspiracy to aid and abet terrorism after she released a press statement on behalf of Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel Rachman, whom she represented as an attorney.

Join the campaign to free Lynne! For more infor­ mation, see justiceforlynnestewart.org.

— JEFF MACKLER For info about Socialist Action and how to join: Socialist Action National Office, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610, (510) 2689429, [email protected] Socialist Action newspaper editorial offices: [email protected] Website: www.socialistaction.org WHERE TO FIND SOCIALIST ACTION • Philadelphia: [email protected] • Portland, Ore.: (503) 233-1629 [email protected] • Providence: [email protected] (401) 592-5385 • Salem, Ore.: [email protected] • San Francisco Bay Area:

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more concrete demands than the ones outlined above. and exploited. For a workers’ government!

Lynne Stewart files new appeal

Socialist Action Canada