“Having access to medical services is important for our ability to live with integrity, and, at times, it is also a matter of our safety in the world,” he says.
While Sensing also agrees that transgender should not be classified as a disorder, he says that having access to the coverage is more important than the terminology used to describe it.
“Right now I’m concerned with being healthy and being able to afford my healthcare, and this insurance coverage goes a really long way in helping me toward that goal,” he says. “If for the sake of insurance I need to be labeled as having a disorder in order to get the healthcare I need, that’s a small price to pay right now.”
ACCEPTANCE THROUGH EDUCATION
While Sensing says he will tolerate the “disorder” classification since it allows for medical treatment, he says he hopes that this is not a label transgender people will have to carry forever.
“As more people become more enlightened about what it means, they’ll find another way to define it that doesn’t involve stamping us with a disorder,” he says.
Sensing, as well as many other members of the transgender community, are counting on education to spread awareness of transgender issues.
“In some contexts, I’ve seen a lack of acceptance just because there’s not any education or visibility,” Sensing says. “You don’t think something is an issue if you never see it.”
Eva B. Rosenberg ’10, chair of Harvard Transgender Task Force, agrees that the lack of visibility can lead to unintentional discrimination, not only in the search for medical treatment, but also in day-to-day issues such as checking a male/female box on a form, changing one’s name, or using gender-specific restrooms.
“Many individuals and offices across the university are open to transgender issues and learning more about what they can do,” Rosenberg says. “But maybe some employers don’t think they have any trans employees or don’t consider the ways in which their everyday practices could make life harder for gender non-conforming individuals in general.”
While Stanford University is also in the process of developing an insurance policy covering sex reassignment surgery, Harvard is the first Ivy League school to offer coverage for any form of sex reassignment surgery. Members of the transgender community are hopeful that the initiative to be more inclusive of transgender medical needs will spread to other campuses.
“Other institutions look to Harvard and the Ivy Leagues to follow their lead, so I think it’s good that Harvard is doing this now,” says the senior, who hopes to seek sex reassignment surgery within the next few years. “It would’ve been great if they’d been doing it earlier, but it’s still praiseworthy that they’re making this change. This explicitly makes Harvard a more trans-accepting place.”
—Staff Writer Alice E.M. Underwood can be reached at aeunderw@fas.harvard.edu.