Equality Florida is offering a new Transgender Resource Guide that is a directory of transgender-friendly healthcare and service providers across the state.
Gina Duncan, EQFL’s transgender inclusion director, says they’re contacted daily by transgender individuals and parents of transgender Floridians who are trying to find quality healthcare and transgender support.
Duncan transitioned in 2007, and says that when she first started searching for hormone replacement therapy, she was turned away by several service providers once they found out she was transgender.
“When I had my gender reassignment surgery, there were only four recognized surgeons doing this procedure in the United States in 2007,” she says. “I had a year-long wait before I could have the GRS done due to the heavy backlog by GRS surgeons.”
That wasn’t the end of her difficulties. Duncan says several Orlando plastic surgeons turned her down for breast augmentation, saying they weren’t comfortable “doing the surgery on a man.”
She ended up having to travel to Tampa to have her procedures done.
The guide is 32 pages long, and breaks down resources by geographical area, with a section at the end on how to update legal documents should an individual change his or her name.
“TransAction Board members submitted their resources and the entire TA board reviewed, discussed with their local organizations and vetted all entries,” Duncan says, adding that they’ve been working on the guide since July 2014. The plan is to update the guide quarterly, starting Oct. 1, 2015, and Duncan says they expect the volume of resources to increase with each update.
