Report: Berkeley Set to Offer Sex-Change Employee Benefit

I often wonder why countless cities and states are going bankrupt and then I read about the massive problem the state of California has with its $20 + billion budget deficit.

Then of course I read a story like this and it all makes sense..

"While other cities are slashing employee benefits, Berkeley is slated to add one more: paying for sex-change operations," the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Tuesday.

The Berkeley City Council was expected to vote Tuesday night on a proposal to reserve $20,000 annually for city employees' gender-reassignment surgery, which is not covered by the city's health insurance providers, the newspaper reported.

The benefit, to be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis, would allow employees to collect the money before the operation.

cnsnews.com...

Note to Berkley... This surgery is not covered by insurance for a reason!!! Here's the kicker... This is not reimbursement after the surgery, you get you money before hand. Wow! Shouldn't a surgery such as this fall under the rules for putting aside money in a Flexible Spending Account or Medical Savings Account. Paid for by the individual seeking the surgery?

Good luck Berkely! Good luck California! The budget cuts are heading your way sooner than you think.

Here's a little more

"We offer all kinds of benefits to our employees. This brings our benefits in line with what's just and fair for the transgender community," said City Councilman Darryl Moore, who originally proposed the idea in 2007.

The benefit would allow employees to collect the money before the operation. To receive the payout, employees would have to have lived as the opposite sex for at least one year and undergone hormone therapy. They also would have to have worked for the city at least a year.

Read more: www.sfgate.com.../c/a/2011/01/17/BA1P1HA3JL.DTL#ixzz1BP3kGRWw

Who needs basic city services when your tax dollars can cover this.

reply to post by jibeho


It is important that the good people of San Fran be subjected to violent theft so that men can transform themselves into women at their expense.

Odd
Berkeley is not strictly a private university. They are a merger of private and public. Such operations are elective surgery (akin to a boob job).
I don't see any issue if it was strictly a private university..although I would suggest maybe without such silly options, they might be able to reduse the cost of going there in the first place.

Berkeley is a good school, Intelligent professors there, however, the administration seems to be going wonky with such decisions.

I can see the occasional plastic surgery as a sympathetic covering (woman with breast cancer getting some surgery to get her back to where she was...that kind of thing)..this is simply ridiculous. Agreed..budget cuts will not pass over this if its found any public money whatsoever is going towards this.

Some things simply need to come out of the individual's pocket if they want.

reply to post by SaturnFX


it says city workers

reply to post by RelentlessLurker


Its a mental health issue I suspect. Most transexuals who go through the operation do so because they feel they don't have a choice in order to feel "right". Given the state of the US legal system I would suspect that this is a pre-emptive move to stop them being sued for way more money in the future.

Though equally it could just be a corruption issue. Hard to tell.

reply to post by maskfan


You mean transgendered dear, not transsexual. Believe it or not but there is a difference between those two words.

I don't see why anyone would have a problem with this unless you're a transphobic, heterocentric breeder. It is very expensive to have this sort of corrective surgery & I'm sure many city employees wouldn't be able to afford it with out this bill.

reply to post by PinkAndBlack


Ooops sorry my bad, but yea what you said.

My only shock to reading this is. . . . "Berkley didn't have this already?????

Meh. If Kali want to go down the drain faster than Linsey Lohan at an open bar, then more power to them.

WOW.............. I was going to write a thread on this but I searched and found it was already here. I am surprised it has not drawn more attention.
S&F op.
These people should be ashamed of them selves. Putting an ELLECTIVE surgery before the needs of those who are paying their salaries. Our government has truly gone mad!
These people do not need this surgery to preform their daily duties as county employees.
My first thought is that you have some administrators in this county that want the surgery and see this as a way to make someone else flip the bill for it.

I think its completely ignorant on part of many posters suggesting this surgery is elective for some individuals. It shows clear disregard for understanding aspects of an issue before chiming in with a little quip against the trans crowd.

With that said, this shouldn't be put on the taxpayers tab.

Well, well well.... here I was afraid I was gonna get flamed for my opinion..

Long ago I was of the mind of "then damned queers.. who do they think they are .... buncha perverts wanting boobies and such"... then I grew up, was welcomed into civilized society and researched the truth of the matter. This is a mental health issue. It is not an elective surgery and it is NOT handed out like candy. YEARS of psychological assessment is required and add to that hormone therapy for sometimes years pre-surgery before it can be performed. People who qualify are suffering great psychological pain pre-surgery.It is not a sexual issue.. it is a sexual identity issue ( HUGE difference) usually with genetic indications and hormonal issues indicating that the outward sexual appearance does not psychologically or hormonally/chemically/genetically match the inward sexuality.In this particular circumstance I would no more deny a patient brain surgery than this surgery since both are required to live that person's life to its fullest potential and be a contributing member of society.

Thats my opinion anyway.