Montreal Gender Surgery Center Subjected To Arson Attack

When my post op sisters talk about what surgeons did their gender confirmation surgeries, sometimes when we are discussing that subject in Trams World they will nickname themselves based on what SRS surgeon did the operation.

For those who went to the late Dr. Stanley Biber, they call themselves 'Biber babies'.  The ones who went to Dr. Toby Meltzer say they were 'Meltzered'.  Those who went through Dr. Marci Bowers are 'Marci's Maidens'

For those who had their gender confirmation surgeries with the now retired Dr. Yvon Menard and with Dr Pierre Brassard who took over his Montreal practice, they are 'Menard Mademoiselles' or 'Brassard Beauties'.

I mention Drs. Menard and Brassard because it has come to my attention that the surgery center where Dr Menard and Dr. Brassard do their work for trans women across Canada and around the world was hit by an arsonist who entered the building on May 2 at 8:45 PM EDT and set it on fire..

While sprinklers quickly extinguished the fire before firefighters arrived and no one was hurt, the arson attack on the Centre Metropolitain de Chirurgie (CMC) resulted in $700,000 of smoke and water damage to equipment and it's indefinitely closed.

The surgeries scheduled between May 3-6 were rescheduled, and the CMC announced in a  May 4 press conference that they were working to transfer surgical operations to another clinic, that the adjoining convalescence home wasn't damaged, and security in the wake of this attack has been ramped up..

The Montreal Police arson unit is investigating the fire, but as of yet haven't announced if they have a person of interest in this anti-trans terror attack or classified it as a hate crime.

Really?  Egale Canada, begs to differ on whether this is a hate crime, and issued a statement in the wake of the May 2 attack on the CMC. .

On May 2nd, 2016, a man armed with a machete, axe, and gas can, stormed Canada’s only sex reassignment clinic in Montréal, and set it on fire.

This act of arson is a symbolic affront to Canada’s trans community, and nothing short of hate crime.

The attack underlines the threat of violence that is endured by Canadian trans people on a daily basis, and affirms the continued need for positive change in our country’s public perception of trans people.

Trans folk suffer a heightened degree of violence, hate, stigma, and discrimination based on gender identity. Due to the May 2 attack, The Centre Métropolitain de Chirurgie suffered $700 000 (in damage), and is currently out of commission, further depriving trans folk of their already threatened access to facilities dedicated to safely performing gender confirming procedures.

On the morning of May 4th, 2016 Egale tweeted news headlines related to these events, linking the news to a daily curated news feed. Egale could have provided deeper coverage of this event and taken swifter action to release a statement. Egale Canada Human Rights Trust is dedicated to furthering the human rights of trans folks in Canada and abroad, by providing LGBTQ-inclusivity training at Canadian schools and workplaces, by providing domestic and international government policy consultation, and through counselling, crisis intervention, and housing support of LGBTQ2SI youth.

Needless to say, Egale stands in full support of The Centre Métropolitain de Chirurgie, denounces the actions of its attackers, and of any who choose to attack the human rights or our trans friends and neighbours.

The CMC not only does gender confirmation surgeries, it also does within its walls other cosmetic and reconstructive surgery services.  The private clinic is also the only one in Canada that does SRS, and people from across Canada and the United States wait years for their gender confirmation surgical appointments at the CMC.

The CMC was affordable, compared to US GRS surgeons and until the attack, was flying under the radar. That anonymity died no thanks to a transphobic terrorist arsonist.

This terror attack on this clinic also points out not only the need in Canada and the United States for more trained SRS surgeons, but the need for the Canadian government to get busy with the job of protecting the human rights of my Canadian trans siblings at the federal level..

Here's hoping that the Montreal Police expeditiously solve this hate crime and bring the perpetrator of it to justice.

Parents Try Suing To Stop Adult Child From Having SRS

In our WTF news of the day, was alerted to a situation in which the parents of Christine Kitzler tried to sue in a last ditch attempt by them to stop their 48 year grown azz child from undergoing SRS

Kitzler was in Pennsylvania from her home in South Carolina to get the gender confirmation surgery done after 16 months of pre-operative preparation, the prerequisite psychological clearances and a 24 hour fast before the scheduled Tuesday procedure was halted by her parents lawsuit.

Angela Giampolo, Christine's attorney said she had never seen competency invoked in order to block a gender reassignment surgery, and that Kitzler's parents were trying to prevent Christine from living an authentic life .

"This isn't a competency hearing.  This isn't a guardianship hearing. This is a difference of opinion,." said the prominent Philadelphia based TBLG rights attorney.  

Judge C.Theodore Fritsch agreed and denied their request, saying Klaus and Ingrid Kitzler had failed to provide clear and convincing evidence that guardianship was necessary.  Judge Fritsch also denied their motion for an independent medical exam.

Of course Christine was happy with the decision rendered by the court and is moving forward with the planned procedure.  

Good luck with your SRS Christine and may you have a speedy and complication free recovery from it.

Hey Trans Men, Wake Forest Scientists Create Human Penis In Lab

One of the ongoing truisms we'll say in the trans community that relates to bottom surgery for our trans brothers goes like this:

'Trans men got the blessing of instant passability, but their bottom surgery sucks.'

While medical science has long been able for decades to create aesthetically authentic looking genitalia for trans women, so far that has been problematic enough for our trans brothers to the point many forgo the genital surgery.

But that may be about to change thanks to news of a. medical technology breakthrough that may change that for trans men and cis men who have lost their genitalia for whatever reason.

In 2009 urological surgeon Dr. Anthony Atala the director of the Wake Forest University Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and his colleagues attached a bioengineered penis to 12 male rabbits.   When those rabbits mated, 8 had successful ejaculations and 4 produced offspring.

With the successful animal trials completed, they have now moved up the evolutionary ladder and are working to do the same for human males

Atala's technique is to use a donor penis, soak it in enzymes that remove the donor cells, then use cells from the patient so they have a biologically functioning penis.   Once the organ has grown strong enough, it is then attached to the patient.

What is needed is someone to do the first human transplant test to know if the technique is viable, and Atala's team expects that to happen in the next five years.

As for whether it  would work for our trans brothers, there are pro and con arguments so far, but the only way we will know for sure is once the technique is perfected or medical science comes up with a better solution.   And as fast as medical technology has been evolving lately, it may be sooner rather than later.

But a long held dream of the trans masculine community that wishes it in terms of realistic and functional penis may become a reality within the next ten to years.

According To Medical Experts, SRS Is Medically Necessary

I got into this Facebook debate two days ago with a friend of mine who is a nurse and complained about how senior citizens are treated by the US healthcare system.  

I was in agreement with her on the funding issue until she used the Kosilek case as an example in her mind of 'wasteful taxpayer spending' and compounded it by saying that SRS was medically unnecessary surgery.  

Um, flag on the play.   Did I call her on it?  You betcha.  And when I saw the same BS in a Clutch magazine article and transphobia creeping into the comment sections, called them out, too.

According to the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, World Professional Organization for Transgender Health, several professional organizations in the fields of medicine, mental health and social work and surprise, surprise insurance companies such as Aetna,  hormone replacement therapy and sex reassignment surgery are medically necessary

The decision in terms of whether we need SRS or not is up to the individual transperson, and in some cases our medical histories will dictate whether we can have it or not, but medical people who treat gender identity issues are increasingly coming to the consensus opinion that gender reassignment surgery is not a frivolous or cosmetic procedure, but a medically necessary one..

ABC's Primetime Nightline Focusing On Trans Kids Tomorrow

Tomorrow' ABC will broadcast a Primetime Nightline segment starting at 10 PM EDT/9 PM CDT that will focus on transkids. 

The segment will focus on 'Princess Boy' Dyson Kilodavis, Germany's Kim Petras, who started her transition at age 10 and is believed to have been the youngest person ever at age 16 to receive SRS surgery , ten year old Jackie in Ohio and 19 year old New Yorker Vanessa.

It will also have on it Charles Kane, the poster boy for detransition and critic of early transitions.  

While I felt they could have done this segment with having him on it, the notepad will be in hand to check out the broadcast.

Long Wait For His Surgery

It's nice for me to get to post something about a transman on this blog.  

In 1972 Juani Santos was diagnosed as the first transman in Cuba.   It took 40 years of struggling with anti trans prejudice from family and friends and waiting for the Cuban government to resume doing SRS surgeries, but at age 61  Santos finally got it. 

The first Cuban SRS surgery took place in 1988, but after heated criticism the health ministry stopped using public funds for the program.   The program resumed in 2008 at the insistence of noted psychologist, sexologist and head of CENESEX Mariela Castro Espin. daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro..

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He's had a long wait, but hope our transbrother lives a happy rest of his life  

SRS Is Not A Requirement To Be A 'Successful' Transsexual

One of the things we need to do more often in this community is to spotlight and hold up our role models. We need our kids struggling with gender issues to see the diverse rainbow of transpeeps out there who are surviving and thriving out there in the cold, cruel world while being proud of who they are as transpeople.

There are two lists put together by Karen Serenity and Dr. Lynn Conway's TS Successes that do this quite well, and I applaud them for that.

However, there are two major problems with those lists.

Problem number one is the severe lack of melanin in them, and the second problem is that they focus almost exclusively on post-op transwomen.

I've said this before and will continue to drive this point home until I'm put in a nice casket and buried six feet under my beloved Texas soil that the cold hard truth is our transitions are not like yours.

We don't as people of color start out making a lot of money to begin with, so it takes us much longer if we do decide to get surgery to do so even if we start the transitions at a younger age.

There are also some peeps who can't get SRS for medical reasons as well or simply don't want to.

So riddle me this Karen Serenity and Dr. Conway. What happens when you create a list of successful transwomen that excludes people that either haven't publicly declared they've had SRS, have declared they don't want it or feel it isn't anybody's business to know what genitalia is in their panties?

It ends up as overwhelmingly white, middle-upper middle class and devoid of melanin.

If you are only including declared post-op transpeople on your lists, and the people who do go on to get surgery are overwhelmingly white and middle-upper middle class, what does the resulting list look like to a person of color?

Well, this POC is about to tell you.

One of the issues I had to deal with as a teenage transkid in the 70's was not seeing positive role models that reflected my ethnic heritage. It was one of the issues we've repeatedly discussed on my TSTB list of African descended transwomen.

I've noted that African descended transwomen growing up in the 80's and 90's had that same question and concern as well.

I've also made the point as well, along with many gender specialists that gender is not whether you have a penis or vagina between your legs, it's between your ears.

Transwoman, and especially you two ladies should know that better than anybody.

But one of the things that I have consistently seen from the WWBT crowd and transwomen who transition before 1990 is that they are still stuck in that same genitalia=gender paradigm, then label anyone who hasn't spent 20K for a neocoochie as 'not female'.

Congrats, you're no better than the radfems and the Religious Reich in that regard.

But then again, in order to get SRS back in the day, since many of the pioneering SRS gender surgeons were stuck in that rigid gender binary, they did make pre-1990's transwomen jump through multiple hoops and do crap that we post-1990 transwomen don't have to do.

But we all still have to swallow estrogen and deal with the same issues of negotiating society in a feminine body, and whether you have a neoclit or neocoochie as you deal with those issues doesn't change that one millimeter.

In Dr. Conway's case, she has a double standard in place in terms of her Successful Transmen page. As many of us in the community know, the bottom surgery for transmen is not even close to what transwomen have in terms of aesthetics and functionality, but yet she doesn't apply the same gender=genitalia standard to them that she applies to transwomen.


May I remind you ladies that being a success in life isn't based on your genitalia. There are also transwomen who have achieved wonderful things for this community who haven't necessarily spent time on a surgery table either.

I guess if the first transwomen elected to Congress or the first transgender mayor elected in a major city wasn't a post-op, you would decline to put her on your page.

While you have every right as the creators of those lists to determine the parameters as to who does and doesn't get included on the lists you spend your precious time compiling, I also have the same right, especially since people use them as resources to point out you're also doing those transwomen like Spain's Carla Antonelli for example, a disservice by ignoring their accomplishments.

You're also doing a disservice to people that need to see a wide palette of trans role models a disservice as well.