Vancouver Trans Advocacy Group (VanTAG)

Blog Facelift

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:30:00 +0000

Today we're happy to announce a long overdue change to our blog!

We've introduced a similar two-column template, with a completely overhauled color scheme, font styles, photo header, footer, and an all-new menu bar with links to our ongoing series releases.

If you would like to send us any feedback on this update, please post blog comments or send us email at: blog@vantag.org

- The VanTAG Team

Georgia Straight Article on Trans Rights in BC

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:15:00 +0000

VANCOUVER - July 31st, 2008: Carlito Pablo of The Georgia Straight wrote an article covering the current state of transgender rights in BC.

Read the article here.

The article discusses our lack of sanctioned protections in our Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, the subtle but direct impact this on trans individuals and the greater trans community, and offers a handful of perspectives and analysis of amending the Charter to include "gender identity and gender expression".

We would really appreciate your feedback on this article. Please don't hesitate to share your perspective on trans rights or comment on your experiences with trans discrimination in BC! Please post via blog comments or via email: blog@vantag.org

VanTAG Now a Member of TAS

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:15:00 +0000

We've officially become a member of the Trans Alliance Society, here in Vancouver.

TAS has many common goals with VanTAG; creating access to trans surgery, challenging our Provincial Human Rights to sanction and protect gender identity, and further the medical needs and human rights of trans (etc) people in BC. Our mutual alliance is a natural extension to these goals, and we've already established a very positive and productive relationship.

At the moment TAS is driving a petition to "amend the British Columbia Human Rights Code so as to include and to specify “gender identity and gender expression” as a prohibited ground of discrimination for all purposes of that legislation in British Columbia."

Read the Xtra West Article on the TAS petition here:
http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?STORY_ID=5094

Visit the TAS website and sign the Rights petition here:
http://www.transalliancesociety.org/

Look out for the TAS booth, and sign the Rights petition, at the Vancouver Pride Festival (immediately following the Pride Parade) at Sunset Beach in the West End of Downtown Vancouver, on Sunday August 3rd, 2008.

- The VanTAG Team

VanTAG's Back in Business!

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:45:00 +0000

After a 2 month hiatus, VanTAG is now back up and running.

Two of our primary team members have been out of commission due to their respective surgeries and recoveries. This has significantly hampered our efforts to develop blog content, push forward with the letter writing campaign, and the continue creation of the petition materials.

Now that our team is back together here in Vancouver, we're ready to jump back into a summer of productive advocacy!

We'd like to say a big "Thank You!" to our subscribers/readers for sticking with us!

- The VanTAG Team

Xtra West Article on our Trans Health Care Crisis

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:00:00 +0000

VANCOUVER – June 18th, 2008: Patty Comeau of Xtra! West (Vancouver) wrote an article covering the current trans health care crisis in BC.

Read the article here.

Dr. Bowman was interviewed and he highlighted the predicament of hundreds of trans people being approved for surgery by our Surgery Assessors (i.e. vaginoplasty) here in Vancouver, but because of our VCH crunch surrounding trans surgeries, they cannot be performed here. Instead, trans patients are still being told to shuttle themselves off to Montreal.

Two of our VanTAG team members, Lauren and Ashley, were also interviewed by telephone for the article.

The article also outlines how only vaginoplasty is covered, how top surgery is only being partially refunded, how breast augmentation is only covered in rare cases, and how trans patients are still missing coverage for other medically-necessary services and surgeries, such as facial feminization surgery and hair removal.

Thank you Patty, for drawing attention to our "silent crisis" within the greater GLBT community!

We would really appreciate your feedback on this article. Please don't hesitate to comment on your own experiences with accessing surgery and services here in BC! Please post via blog comments or via email: vantagblog@gmail.com

The New Petition Framework

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Tue, 27 May 2008 06:30:00 +0000

We're currently developing our strategy for a community-wide petition to draw attention to the current trans health care crisis, and create a meaningful solution.

But how do we create a solution?

We believe it involves pooling the collective frustrations of the local (Vancouver) trans community and our immediate allies, and voicing those frustrations with our health care representatives, via a hybrid online+offline petition. Here's what we plan to do:

1. Create a short video presentation, posted on our YouTube account and our FaceBook Page, communicating the brief history and scale of the problem, and how to get involved in the petition. (We feel this will help to "standardize" the many aspects of the crisis for trans individuals' lack of access to care, and condense the concerns of our allies into action too. We're working on this right now.)

2. Create the actual petition form, and a personal letter-writing template; publish on VanTAG, circulate both online and offline with community contacts / groups.

3. Purchase a pre-paid year of a VOIP-like fax-to-email service; drawing donations from VanTAG founders, team members, close supporters, etc.

4. Ask our viewers to download the petition PDF, print it, sign it, and fax or scan+email it in to VanTAG.

5. Circulate the presentation and petition among community networks, involve the media via interviews and press releases, encourage discussion and blogging/vlogging.

6. Pool the results of the petition here on VanTAG, and report back to the community.

7. Utilize the petition and personal letters as the focal points for pressuring health care representatives to; fully recognize, insure, fund all surgeries/services, deliver wherever necessary -- competent, individualized, holistic, community-based trans health care.

8. If necessary, reassert the results of the petition as the foundation for our campaign media releases and physical protests in both Vancouver and Victoria.

If we [at VanTAG] hypothetically receive 1000 petition signatures, and we've made every effort to facilitate relief from the current crisis with the Ministry of Health, MSP, VCH et al. by talking with respective health care representatives, but we [the community] don't receive an adequate reply in the form of full funding and delivery, we [the community] will be fully legitimized in our physical protests.

While we appreciate that faxes are rapidly becoming endangered, the rationale behind our old-tech approach is relatively straightforward: we believe physical signatures will enable the petition to speak on behalf of the collective community and legitimize our protests. Signatures are as powerful as appearing in person (which can't be said for email addresses) and they bring significantly more weight to the proverbial bargaining table when communicating with health care representatives. We're essentially trying to avoid the pitfalls typically associated with internet petition slacktivism.

We're struggling to create the seed cash for the fax-to email service. If you happen to be interested in helping us with this aspect of the petition, please contact us via email at vantagblog@gmail.com and share your ideas with us! (Please note, this is not a solicitation for donations.)

If you have any questions about or new strategy, please post your Q&A via the askablogr widget on the sidebar of this blog. If you have any general feedback, please don't hesitate to comment! Thanks.

- The VanTAG Team

VanTAG Now On Facebook

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Wed, 21 May 2008 23:00:00 +0000

In an effort to expand our network and reach throughout the local trans community, we have setup a Page on Facebook. We plan to utilize Facebook as a means of releasing campaign- and ally-oriented media, and also for future event coordination.

Visit our Facebook Page here.

If you are actively involved in -- and "out" on -- Facebook, please support VanTAG and our campaign efforts by becoming a Fan of the Page, joining our Facebook Group, or posting supportive comments on our Wall. We'd really appreciate the exposure! Thanks.

- The VanTAG Team

A New Direction for VanTAG

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Thu, 01 May 2008 06:40:00 +0000

Since launching this campaign and releasing the contact details for our government representatives, our team feels the response from the community has indicated major challenges which have prevented our message from connecting with the right people, or from ramping up the collective actions of the community, as we set out to accomplish.

We feel it makes sense to shift the tone and content of VanTAG posts into alignment with the tone of our original Manifesto. In essence, we feel our blog posts have become too 'dry' since this original outline. We're about to make a dramatic move towards a personal(ized) style of writing, to accurately reflect the sheer frustrations of the community, voice the concerns of our local trans population, and enable us to release posts on a far more frequent basis. We're currently exploring working with new writers and editors. Meanwhile, our team will still coordinate the neutral, 'diplomatic' content.

We've had concerns and reservations about making personally-accountable content and opinions available through our channel, however our provincial trans health care situation has reached such an extreme point of crisis that we cannot be timid any longer. Now is the best time to take advantage of the opportunity being presented to us: significantly under addressed primary health care for thousands of British Columbians. We must be prepared to embarrass the provincial government to the point that they actually make the changes the community so desperately needs; fully funded and insured trans health care.

We're actively networking with our community peers, and local LGBT organizations to direct (otherwise squandered) attention and participation to the campaign. We're also about to make a major announcement about the direction, logistics, and semantics of the campaign, so stay tuned!

If you are interested in writing or editing for this campaign, please drop us an email at: vantagblog@gmail.com

- The VanTAG Team

Advocacy Kit: Contacts Sheet

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:00:00 +0000

We've finished compiling a contacts sheet intended for your faxing and mailing convenience, and released it today.

It contains the mailing addresses for the Minister of Health, the Premier, and representatives of MSP and VCH. It also contains a listing of GVRD MLAs and their fax numbers, alphabetized by voting region.

Download the PDF here.

For future reference, links to these documents can be found in the blog sidebar.

- The VanTAG Team

How to Contact the Premier of BC

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:30:00 +0000

The Honorable Gordon Campbell is our current Premier of BC. More info here: http://www.gov.bc.ca/premier/

Premier's Office Contact Information:

Phone: 250-387-1715

Fax: 250-387-0087

Email: premier@gov.bc.ca

Mailing address:
PO Box 9041
Stn. Prov. Govt.
Victoria, BC
V8W 9E1

Live Chat: Technical Problems, Apology

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:45:00 +0000

We regret to announce our live chat scheduled for last night didn't launch as we had expected. We ran into technical difficulties using the chat widget we were planning to use.

We apologize for this screw-up!

We appreciate how our subscribers may have been looking forward to this feedback session. Our team here at VanTAG is looking into alternate methods of community conversation. Our intention was simply to spark reader involvement, but perhaps we tried this too early in the campaign!

Thanks for bearing with us.

- The VanTAG Team

Live Chat: Letter Feedback

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:00:00 +0000

We would love to hear from you, our subscribers, and get your feedback about this campaign so far, and specifically regarding the recently-released Advocacy Kit letter.

We're aiming to have a live chat on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 8:00 PM PST.

We'll try to use a web-based chat widget here on the blog, but please bare with us if there are technical difficulties and/or a slight delay at the beginning.

The feedback we're looking for:

The tone of the letter
The outline of recent history with trans health care in BC
The list of requests and justifications for surgery/services coverage, and how that relates to your personal care situation
Factual accuracy and any corrections / changes you think should be made
Suggestions for other new Advocacy Kit components
Any guidance you have for the overall campaign

If you are interested in participating in the conversation but can't make it due to scheduling conflicts, please post your Q&A via the askablogr widget on this blog, or email us your comments at vantagblog@gmail.com

- The VanTAG Team

Advocacy Kit: First Release

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:30:00 +0000

Our team has finally completed the first release in our Advocacy Kit, a Letter to the Minster of Health, Medical Services Plan, Vancouver Coastal Health, and our Members of the Legislative Assembly.

The letter details the recent history of trans care in BC, the failings of delivery, the impact this has had on trans people, and a plea for coverage. It also outlines a request for another conversation between the health authorities, the trans community, and our primary care providers, and provides justification for the costs associated with funding a comprehensive, individualized, modernized trans health care program.

Download the PDF here.

Please print your name, the date, your CareCard PHN, and sign the letter before faxing it! Also, please don't forget to update your vote on the sidebar (here on the blog, under "Have you participated in the letter writing campaign?") to help us keep track of who's sent letters!

We will soon release a personal letter template, intended to facilitate a more personalized account of the impact on your life situation, as well as templates for family members and SOFFAs to communicate their perspective and frustrations. We'll also publish a summary contact sheet for your convenience while faxing your letters. Stay tuned for this!

- The VanTAG Team

CBC Radio Interview with Dr. Bowman

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:30:00 +0000

VANCOUVER – April 2nd, 2008: Rick Cluff of CBC Radio's "Early Edition" interviewed Dr. Bowman and Ricky Docksteader, a BC trans woman preparing for her SRS in Montreal today.

Dr. Bowman responded to the recent article published in The Province newspaper, discussing the current fiasco of MSP covering SRS only when performed in Montreal, when SRS could be otherwise be performed here in Vancouver.

Download the interview here.

In addition to providing feedback to CBC (contacts mentioned at the end of the clip) our team here at VanTAG would also really appreciate your feedback about this interview, via blog comments or via email: vantagblog@gmail.com

- The VanTAG Team

How to Contact the Minister of Health

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:00:00 +0000

The Honorable George Abbott is our current Minister of Health for BC. More info here: http://www.gov.bc.ca/health/minister.html

Minister of Health's Office Contact Information:

Phone: 250-953-3547

Fax: 250-356-9587

Email: hlth.health@gov.bca.ca (unconfirmed)

Mailing address:
PO Box 9050
Stn. Prov. Govt.
Victoria, BC
V8W 9E2

Future Feedback

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:30:00 +0000

Q: Hello VanTAG and welcome to Askablogr. I had hoped the product would be useful to online resource and advocacy groups like yours and I'd love to hear any feedback or ideas you or your readers may have

Posted by Chris DeVore

A: Thanks, Chris! Wd'd be happy to give you feedback on our use of Askablogr, but there's not much to report yet, since we just kicked off our campaign. Perhaps we can keep in touch later this year!

How to Contact Your MLA

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 04:10:00 +0000

"MLA" stands for Member of the Legislative Assembly. Your MLA represents your concerns and your riding (a.k.a. neighborhood or region) in the Parliament of British Columbia, located in Victoria. If our MLAs receive enough personal letters, illustrating the frustrations of the trans community, there's a chance they will recognize the failings of our current trans health care system, and pressure the Minister of Health to change it for the better!

Here's how you can do this:

Find your MLA's webpage by searching from your postal code, 4th option on this form:
http://www.leg.bc.ca/mla/
You may also wish to reference your neighboring MLA's, especially those in Vancouver:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legislative_Assembly_of_British_Columbia
Capture your MLA's email address and fax number.
Write/send them a letter!

Launch!

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:30:00 +0000

After a month of reviews and revisions, our campaign is finally ready to launch!

Our main challenge now is to connect with trans people, our SOFFAs (significant others, family, friends, and allies) and primary care providers / gender specialists with our message. Please help us get the word out! This campaign is only as effective as your participation! Here are some suggestions for how to do that:

Top 3 Ways SOFFAs Can Help Spread the Message:

Email the link to VanTAG (vantag.org) to your trusted, trans-supportive friends, i.e. family friends, close coworkers, and close relatives; ask them to subscribe to this blog and participate in the letter campaign.
Ask your partner/spouse to participate.
If you know anyone who's trans, link them too!

Top 5 Ways Trans People Can Help Spread the Message:

Email, instant message, or text (SMS) the link to VanTAG (vantag.org) to your SOFFAs; ask them to subscribe to this blog and participate in the letter campaign.
Trans youth: email your immediate family supports; e.g. parents, older siblings, relatives, if available.
Write a blog post or capture a vlog entry about VanTAG.
Talk with your trans support group / immediate community, if available.
Discuss this movement with your family doctor, endocrinologist, therapist, or gender specialist.

The Next Step:
Our team is wrapping up the first release in our Advocacy Kit, a Letter to the Minster of Health, Medical Services Plan, and Vancouver Coastal Health. It will detail the recent history of the present challenges we're all faced with, how those previous proposals have fallen short of the needs of the community, and perhaps most importantly, a plea for coverage.

Please prepare a personal letter outlining how these issues have affected your life (illustrating where you have run into roadblocks and inequalities with the medical system) and prepare to include this with your copy of our Advocacy Kit letter, to mail and fax in! Stay tuned for this release!

As always, we would love to hear from you! Please email your comments to: vantagblog@gmail.com

- The VanTAG Team

VanTAG Manifesto

blog@vantag.org (VanTAG Team) — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 14:30:00 +0000

A short intro:
We are a non-profit team of activists advocating the fair recognition of medical needs and human rights of transgendered people in BC.

Our Primary Anchors in the Trans Health Care Community:
Dr. Cameron Bowman, MD FRCSC (SRS surgeon)
http://www.surgery.ubc.ca/faculty/cbowman.html

Lukas Walther, Trangender Health Program
http://www.vch.ca/transhealth/

Dr. Melady Preece, Registered Psychologist
http://www.drmeladypreece.com/

The Problem We're Trying to Address:
The Vancouver General Hospital Gender Clinic was shut down in 2002. Responding to the vacuum in specialized medical services needed by the transgender community, Vancouver Coastal Health hosted a conversation with the community, which lead to the creation of the Transgender Health Program, and an ongoing information resource development program began.

The Ministry of Health recognized the fallout from the closure of the Clinic, and was aware of the demand for access to basic MSP-covered surgery, so MSP explored the costs associated with sending trans patients to surgeons outside BC, and concluded the high costs costs justified creating a surgical role and building a care model in BC instead.

Dr. Bowman was recruited to fill this roll. Since he came online with the new care model in early 2006, there have been several rounds of funding released which have not made their way to allocation for trans surgery. Dr. Bowman now has a growing list of 140+ patients who have been approved by MSP, but he cannot perform any of these surgeries because he cannot access VCH Operating Room time. This is the administrative failing of the MSP-proposed care model.

The Double-Whammy:
Currently MSP will only provide coverage for a small selection of available trans surgeries; which only address the needs of a small portion of the trans population of BC. This policy does not adequately provide accessibility of medically-necessary surgeries or services (as determined by primary care providers such as GPs, surgeons, and therapists) and has effectively created preferential treatment and discriminated against trans individuals. It has placed the burden of care (and associated costs) on trans individuals and our families.

As Trans Health Program resources emphasize, there's no one "right way" to transition, or "right" way to be trans. Transgender persons shouldn't be cornered into a genital-centric model that fits the surgical needs of a few, but ignores the surgical and service needs of the majority.

We feel that we don't need to tell you -- our trans-identified and trans-allied audience -- how most trans people's lives have been destroyed and completely put on hold because of these two factors, over the past 5 years. We recognize how frustrated, overwhelmed, and degraded the community feels. Many trans people cannot work, function, or reintegrate without having had access to treatment. Trans youth are especially vulnerable without establishment or basic advocacy.

How We Propose to Address these Challenges:
While we recognize there are amazing people on-board at MSP who are doing their best to press for change, we also see that internal evolution is not enough. Our call to action for trans people and our allies in BC is simply to:

Apply political pressure to our Provincial government,
Raise awareness about these issues within Vancouver Coastal Health,
Charge the Minister of Health with inadequately addressing the primary health care of trans individuals, and
Press for full coverage of all foremost trans surgeries and services, including: phalloplasty, metoidioplasty, facial feminization surgery, breast augmentation in all cases, any revision or replacement surgeries, and hair removal coverage via laser and/or electrolysis.

We have consulted with our advisers in the health care community and their foremost suggestion is to channel the frustrations of the trans community in a coordinated letter-writing campaign to each of the parties involved (MSP, VCH, Minister of Health.) Our team is in the process of drafting letters to send to these parties.

We intend to publish a complete "Advocacy Kit", containing a series of web-fillable PDFs for you to download, print, and mail. We ask that you include your name, signature, and CareCard Patient Health Number to verify your BC residence, and validate your protest.

As we gauge the response of our health officials, we may also wind up preparing for public demonstrations in Vancouver and/or Victoria. We may also need to escalate our protest and involve the news media.

If you happen to be very "out" and involved in the community (or physically located outside Greater Vancouver) and you also happen to blog or video blog, we would really appreciate your support. In return, we would post links to your content from our site, and leverage our collective protests.

Conclusion:
We have come so far since 2002, and so close to a trans health care system that actually works! We have an incredible opportunity to build the best trans health care model in North America. Help make BC the "Best Place on Earth" for ALL British Columbians, which includes trans people!

If you feel as strongly as we do about creating this change, please subscribe via RSS or email to our updates.

We would love to hear from you. Please email your comments or concerns, or apply to our team at: vantagblog@gmail.com

- The VanTAG Team