Every time someone argues to me that it’s necessary for transness itself to be understood by everyone as a medical condition

Every time someone argues to me that it’s necessary for transness itself to be understood by everyone as a medical condition in order for trans people to get hormones and surgeries covered by insurance, I remember this blog post from 2010. Where I learned that prior to 1980, trans people were able to have trans health care, including surgeries, covered by insurance, and the care was considered medically necessary.

The blanket exclusion on trans care in the U.S. didn’t yet exist before 1980. It didn’t always exist.

https://transgriot.blogspot.com/2010/09/why-trans-community-hates-dr-janice-g.html

“For you folks who are wondering why you can’t use the insurance policies you pay for to cover much of the medical work you need done or wonder why the Medicaid and Medicare taxes you pay doesn’t cover SRS or any trans related care, you have Dr. Janice G. Raymond and her unleashed disco era transphobia to thank for that.”

And here’s a more detailed source I found:

https://www.transadvocate.com/terfs-trans-healthcare_n_10275.htm

“Until Raymond’s HHS paper [in 1980], the US government supported trans care as medically necessary. I want you to reread that previous sentence. This meant that poor trans people could freely access psychological and medical care and it meant that public and private insurers had no basis upon which to reject coverage of trans care.”

It was the terf Janice Raymond and her ilk who deliberately developed transmedicalism in order to prevent people from medically transitioning, not because of scientific rigor but because of willful commitment to harming trans people.