Taking it to the Bank: Actualizing Health Care Equality for San Francisco's Transgender City and County Employees

Authors

J. Denise Diskin

Abstract

This note tracks the decision of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and the San Francisco Health Service System Board (HSSB) to provide transition related health care coverage to its transgender city and county employees. The author evaluates the intersection of gender identity, systemic racism, classism, and homophobia within the struggle of marginalized communities to overcome health inequities and discrimination that also often lead to chronic underemployment, lower paying jobs and insufficient medical benefits. The note uncovers the realities of access to legal rights and remedies in connection to medical care for the transgender community, whose vastly diverse needs and interests are often compounded by race and class. The author evaluates activists' strategies for effectuating anti-discrimination measures, highlighting the potential for significant symbolic effect, while proffering organizing lessons and tools for further reform.

Recommended Citation

J. Denise Diskin, Taking it to the Bank: Actualizing Health Care Equality for San Francisco's Transgender City and County Employees, 5 Hastings Race & Poverty L.J. 129 (2008).
Available at: https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_race_poverty_law_journal/vol5/iss1/3