Growing up as a Transsexual is not a choice and cause a lot of discomfort and distress, a mood condition known as Gender Dysphoria, which results in severe anxiety, depression and sometimes leads to self harm, mutilation and suicide.

Current Mental health services such as : Psychiatric care and medication's often do very little for a person living with mismatched genitals. Some of these people have to confront these issues and endure extreme discomfort every time they use a toilet, bathroom or get dressed. They find it hard to have “normal” relationships and sometimes can’t have any sort of sexual relationship due to their discomfort living with their mismatched genitals.

Most genital self-mutilations in non-psychotic patients are found in transsexuals, and premeditation of sex-conversion surgery is the main objectives. ~ Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16121084

Sex Reassignment Surgery is much more than just being cosmetic surgery and has more of impact on a transsexual person's life. SRS is highly regarded as life saving surgery by medical professional’s right around the world including surgeons who perform these revolutionary surgical procedures. Some Transsexual people can’t find the financial means to pay for SRS and become deeply depressed and dysfunctional affecting their everyday lives. Transsexuals also face vilification, discrimination and abuse which can make it very difficult to find gainful employment. It should not be the case that in Australia, in 2012, people are driven to attempt to perform necessary surgery on themselve’s because they can't afford it. The degree of desperation shown illustrates the scope of the problem. Suicide is, of course, the more usual consequence. We need equality within healthcare provisions as i do not understand why we are so behind the rest of the world in this field, So many states and countries around the world fund Sex Reassignment Surgery as it is for health and legal reasons. As it states below SRS Reassignment Surgery is required by law to be done to have ones Birth certificate changed plus other documents once checked out by the required doctors. Why "Sex Change" Surgery is Medically Necessary

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/07/1072072/-Why-Sex-Change-Surgery-is-Medically-Necessary-Revisited

"The degree of legal recognition provided to transsexualism varies widely throughout the world. Many countries now extend legal recognition of sex reassignment by permitting a change of legal gender on the individual's birth certificate. Many transsexual people have their bodies permanently changed by surgical means or semi-permanently changed by hormonal means (see sex reassignment therapy). In many countries, some of these modifications are required for legal recognition. In a few, the legal aspects are directly tied to health care; i.e. the same bodies or doctors decide whether a person can move forward in their treatment, and the subsequent processes automatically incorporate both matters.

American Medical Association House of Delegates Resolution 121 (2008) states:



Gender Identity Disorder (GID) if left untreated, can result in clinically significant psychological distress, dysfunction, debilitating depression and for some people without access to appropriate medical care and treatment, suicidality and death…delaying treatment for GID can cause and/or aggravate additional serious and expensive health problems, such as stress-related physical illnesses, depression and substance abuse problems, which further endanger patients’ health and strain the health care system.

There are many of us in this same situation in Australia and we should not have to resort to begging for funds, so please sign this petition to lobby the Federal Government to cover the costs of surgery for transsexual Australians



Email from the Human Rights Commission 16/4/12012



Thank you for your email to the Communications Unit at the Commission, raising a critical issue for trans people.



I work in the Human Rights Policy team at the Australian Human Rights Commission, which is the policy team that produced the Sex Files report in March 2009. While the focus of the Sex Files report was specifically the examination of legal identity, the need for gender reassignment surgery to be covered by Medicare was also raised with us in consultations of the sex and gender diversity project at the time, as were a range of other health concerns. See Section 13, Sex Files: the legal recognition: Concluding paper of the sex and gender (2009). In the Sex Files report, we explained how the Commission did not have an opportunity to investigate these matters further in the report. However, we raised them with the federal Minister for Health and recommended that the Australian Health Ministers’ Conference consider them. We will continue to raise human rights issues for sex and gender diverse people with the federal government at the right opportunity.



However, I think that you should raise this significant issue directly with the current federal Minister for Health. Our Communications Unit has received many petitions similar to yours, generated from the change.org petition site (which I think you created?). I see that you have the Communications Unit at the Commission as a default address for the petitions. You may find it more effective to send the petitions to the federal government representatives, as they are responsible for deciding policy for Medicare reimbursements, rather than the Commission.



Australian Human Rights Commission



Article in the Star Observer regarding this campaign and petition : http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/2012/05/03/plea-for-better-trans-surgery-coverage/76551