
Chelsea Manning Told She Can Have Gender Reassignment Surgery, Lawyer Says - peterkshultz
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/14/us/chelsea-manning-told-she-can-have-gender-reassignment-surgery-lawyer-says.html
======
milankragujevic
This might be an unpopular opinion, but I believe she should be allowed to
fully transform into the female gender, as that's obviously the best for her
health, and is how she feels. Nobody can change how she feels, and forcing her
to pretend to be a male (because of being born that way) is inhumane. And the
government has to pay for it because they're keeping her locked up, therefor
they're responsible for her well being. If she was a free citizen you wouldn't
expect the government to pay for the surgery.

------
jboynyc
A big win! However, the _Guardian_ reporting adds a little wrinkle:

    
    
      According to Manning’s representatives, doctors 
      have recommended that as part of her treatment 
      for gender dysphoria the soldier, who began hormone 
      therapy in 2015, be allowed to follow “female hair 
      grooming standards”.
    
      ACLU staff attorney Chase Strangio said in Tuesday’s 
      statement that the government planned to still enforce
      the male hair standards.
    

[https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/14/chelsea-
mann...](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/14/chelsea-manning-ends-
hunger-strike-after-winning-battle-for-gender-transition-surgery)

------
ythl
I still don't understand how GRS is the solution. It seems like an extreme,
expensive, permanent "fix" to alleviate symptoms of a mental illness.

This is why I always discount people who say that "mental health treatment" is
the solution to X class of problems. It seems like we don't really know how to
treat mental illness other than to ask the mentally ill person what they want
and give it to them.

~~~
creshal
> I still don't understand how GRS is the solution.

It's not _the_ solution, but it's the least bad last resort workaround we can
come up with for now, and it's better to apply that workaround than to keep
patients suffering.

I don't think anybody is going to complain if a better treatment comes up, but
so far we haven't found one.

> It seems like we don't really know how to treat mental illness other than to
> ask the mentally ill person what they want and give it to them.

It's not perfect, but we've made a _lot_ of progress in the last ~100 years or
so. That's like dismissing "physical health treatment" because we can't yet
cure every kind of cancer.

