CVZ's Response To Intersex Discrimination Case

The discrimination case I have running at the Dutch Human Rights Institute (College voor de Rechten van de Mens) since last year against my former health insurance company Unive is an odd one. Before I had it taken over by the institute it seemed fairly simple, in that the position of Unive was that full coverage for permanent hair removal by intersex people was not possible at all, whereas for transsexual people it was totally covered. The excuse from Unive being that they are two medically completely different situations.

In the first case I started against Unive, at the SKGZ, the opinion of the central organization for healthcare insurance companies, CVZ, was asked for the first time. Reading back their original conclusion from 7 September 2012 it can be summarized as follows: they never suggest or state explicitly that they distinguish between transsexual and intersex individuals in the coverage of permanent (facial) hair removal. They state that the medical evidence provided is insufficient at that point to say that I'm a hermaphrodite or intersex. They agree that there is no sign of transsexuality. Note that at this point I have had my official gender changed already (March 2012) due to medical evidence of me being a hermaphrodite, considered to be sufficient by the judge, who even went so far as to more liberally interpret the law in question due to my female side not being visible externally.

With the response from the Dutch Minster of Health (see earlier blog post) essentially indicating that they never considered intersex individuals in any way, form or shape. Thus saying that the law which enables full coverage for certain therapies in the case of for example transsexuals can not be guaranteed to also apply to intersex individuals. They simply never spent a single thought on the matter.

The pattern we thus see here is one where things start off benign; with a clueless collection of civil servants and ministers putting a law together without considering the full scope due to having bad medical advisors from the looks of it. The resulting neutrally phrased law is then passed on to CVZ which isn't making any definite statements when you read into their words, thus not limiting or setting the scope. Finally the health insurance company who has to implement sees this lack of scope as an opportunity to limit it for as much as they can and meanwhile end up blaming CVZ for 'making them do it'. During the hearing at the Human Rights Institute in Utrecht last year it was literally the Unive representative repeating himself, saying every time that they were just following the interpretation from CVZ.

Recently I received the response from CVZ to the questions asked by the Insitute after another long delay much like that for the Minister of Health. In it they basically state that intersex and hermaphroditism do most definitely contain cases which are comparable to those in transsexuality whereby full coverage of hair removal therapy is provided, as pointed out in their 2008 statement as listed on the website. They repeat that the only reason why they didn't indicate me for full coverage in 2012 was because they could not assign the diagnosis 'hermaphrodite' to me. This again despite the recognition of me as such by the Dutch legal system.

The conclusions one can draw from this whole is that a) Unive lied when they said that they were just following CVZ's interpretation and b) that the refusal by medical and insuring Netherlands to recognize me as being intersex seems to be once again at the center at this issue. Or to put it differently, of fundamental discrimination against intersex individuals within the insurance and medical world in the Netherlands. I have legitimate proof of me being intersex and a hermaphrodite, which according to CVZ would have been enough to qualify me for full coverage. I did have said evidence back in March 2012 already. There was no reason to deny my request.

Instead Unive lied and CVZ ignored a recent court ruling while the Dutch Health Minister looks like a foolish knave, wholly unaware of the real world with its real people.

With this last response it is now up the Human Rights Institute to decide on the next step. Whether there will be another hearing, another evidence gathering round or something else I do not know. I will just patiently await their judgement as I hope that some justice can still be served in the Netherlands.


Maya

Fair Play... Or Not

If my life was a sports match, it'd be me on one side of the field, with the rest of my team mates huddled together at the edge of the field, too traumatized to even participate any more. The opponents would keep shifting faces, but it'd always be the same ones I see in my nightmares. There'd be Jos Megens, coordinator of the VUmc's gender team, whose false laugh and pretense of friendliness frighten me. There'd be Dr. P.T. Cohen-Kettenis, the psychologist who contributed to the Consensus on Management of Intersex Disorders, a 2006 document by 'physicians' and 'psychologists' world-wide on how to best eradicate intersex from the world. She's also the one who dismissed me as a possible intersex case.

She's part of the same VUmc gender team together with Dr. W. de Ronde (endocrinologist), Dr. M.A.A. van Trotsenburg (gynaecologist) and Dr. J.H.T.M. van Waesberghe (radiologist). The first one thought I was a 'feminine looking boy' and threw into my face his conclusion that any further medical examinations would be 'fruitless'. The second one abused me both physically and psychologically by faking a physical examination and then dismissing anything I knew about myself by insisting that I could not be intersex in any way or form. The third one insisted over and over again that no female reproductive organs and a regular prostate were visible on the MRI scans produced in Germany, despite these being clearly visible.

Also in the enemy team are the Dutch minister of health: Edith Schippers. Her letter to me in response to my frantic request to help me with my desperate medical situation essentially dismissed the possibility that the Dutch physicians had done anything untoward to me. She said that by following the aforementioned 'Consensus on Management of Intersex Disorders' to the letters, they were doing only the right things. She kicked on my fingers I had on the edge of the pool and had me slide back in to resume drowning.

Adding to the enemy team are the so-called 'intersex organizations'. Whatever they call themselves, OII, ILGA, ISNA, Accord Alliance... they are all the same. Never helping individuals, just giving them false hope and dining with politicians while pretending to advance the rights of intersex individuals. They caused me almost as much pain and agony as Dutch physicians and the like through false hope, deception and statements made by them dismissing me as a less than desirable existence. They're about as evil as the insurance companies I had to deal with, such as my current one, Unive. Refusing to grant me the same rights as 'normal' people, they feel it's perfectly fine to discriminate against me. SKGZ and CVZ both think this is perfectly fine as well, handily kicking me down a bit further.

On the sidelines of the field there are plenty of supporters for both sides. My side's supporters are pretty outspoken, but they're only supporters. Not supposed to be on the field. Not part of the team. It's just me, standing there in the drenching rain, facing this black mass of evil. I wish all this vile evil and its supporters would just vanish from this planet forever. I do not think I can keep living in a world where their existence would be tolerated.

Next month, the 12th of February I'll be sitting together with my lawyer Yme Drost in the courthouse in Amsterdam at the public hearing against the VUmc's gender team. The claims against them are improper diagnostics and violation of basic human rights. My hope is that this hearing, or maybe I should say match, will mean the turning point in the War on Intersex which has been raging since the 1950s, if not earlier. Maybe one day soon I'll be able to say farewell to this horrific fear I have inside of me that this evil will win out and my life will be denied over and over.

This all comes on top of the more regular forms of misery. I quit my last job at the VARA because I got a burn-out. The impossible demands put on me and the game of masks and pretense within Dutch companies is just too much. I'm now back to working as a freelancer and trying to make money by selling products via my company, Nyanko. We'll be releasing our first major Windows game soon, and I'm always looking for paid projects to work on. I find that by having the full responsibility it is quite stressful at least now that I have a very low income with the possibility of losing everything, including the place I'm renting. Putting the full weight of supporting us financially on my girlfriend's shoulders would be very unfair as well since she is hardly rich as well. If the financial part could be sorted, however, I am sure I'd be very happy to be working in this capacity. I enjoy organizing projects, developed even more dislike against 'project managers' at my last job, and am more than prepared to put in the work and hours to make things happen.

I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't feeling depressed and somewhat suicidal at times. It's hard not to curse my body for being like this. It's nearly impossible not to curse society for being the way it is. All that keeps me going is the thought that maybe, just maybe the coming months my body doesn't have to be a problem any more and I'll be happily doing the work I'm good at.

And after that, the move to a better country. Coincidentally this was also the first question I got asked by the journalist for The Holland Times - an expat magazine - a brief while ago: which countries I'd prefer to move to. To that I answered Australia, South-Korea, Germany, but basically countries with better human rights than the Netherlands. The resulting article of the interview will be published in The Holland Times in late February or March. Maybe it'll trigger a few things. I know that few things would make me and my girlfriend happier than to leave this dark, gloomy country which feels it's okay to abuse everyone who isn't perfectly 'normal'.

Feel free to throw in a few cents via a donation on my main site towards the 'keeping this kitten happy' fund :)


Maya

Judgment Of Health Insurance Netherlands: Intersex Doesn't Exist

Today I received the judgement from SKGZ regarding whether or not my health insurance company, Unive, has to fully cover the permanent hair-removal therapy I'm forced to undergo due to my intersex condition. Their conclusion, contradicting statements made during the hearing [1] a while ago, was that I'm not transgender and haven't undergone surgery or have physical conditions which would warrant such therapy for medical or psychological reasons and thus won't need to be fully covered. The mere 300 Euro a year Unive covers now due to the extended insurance I have with them covers less than half of the costs, with me paying much of that amount myself due to having that extended insurance in the first place.

The final report from SKGZ doesn't list intersex anywhere in the conclusion, fully omitting it as a possible argument to use in favour of me. The overseeing organization for health insurance in the Netherlands, CVZ, also ignored the intersex part. They are ignoring that I am undergoing this therapy because I am _physically_ at least partially female, look female and wish to live in a female role, but due to my intersex condition I had an elevated testosterone level which led to facial hair growth which causes psychological issues for me. It's not optional for me to have it removed.

With this decision I have to once again wonder whether medical institutions and insurance companies/organizations in the Netherlands are all united in this... discrimination against intersex individuals, ignoring their existence and only admitting their existence where it will lead to surgery to 'correct' it. Salient detail is that if I had faked being a transsexual I would have had full coverage here from Unive. No questions asked.

Yet I didn't. And why? Because I only want to be myself, even if it means getting punished for it by every institution and so-called physician and psychologist in the Netherlands for it. Apparently the Netherlands continues its legacy of being an intolerant, backwards, Calvinistic and infuriatingly bureaucratic country.

Someone get me out of here...


Maya


[1] http://mayaposch.blogspot.nl/2012/11/hearing-against-unive-aftermath.html

The Psychology Behind Unive's Discrimination Against Intersex

Today I received another letter from SKGZ. As with every time since the hearing a while ago, I fear that it's the letter spelling out their conclusion. At stake is thousands of Euros for me which I have spent already over the past years, as well as the basic human rights of intersex individuals. Right now intersex individuals do not exist in medical insurance coverage. When it comes to hair-removal due to hormonal imbalances, or specific types of therapies and surgeries, regular males and females as well as transgender individuals are covered. Yet intersex individuals do not exist in these regulations.

The Dutch government determines what is and isn't covered in the base insurance which all health insurance companies have to provide, and yet they failed to cover a condition which has been known for decades, as evidenced by the 1980s Dutch law I used earlier this year to have my official gender changed, which specifically is aimed at intersex individuals. And thus uncaring insurance companies like Unive feel justified in discriminating against a group which isn't even acknowledged by their own government, aside from a few artifacts.

Today's letter from SKGZ, which has the power to change health insurance coverage, wasn't anything conclusive, thankfully, though it did contain a response from Unive on the additional medical evidence I had sent to SKGZ after the hearing to fortify my claim that I am in fact intersex. SKGZ has fortunately already recognized that there is a gap in the regulations where intersex individuals should have been covered. Now they just need to acknowledge that I am indeed intersex. Why I think that this might be an issue is because in the Netherlands no one has ever acknowledged me as being intersex outside the Alkmaar court and this one physician at the ZGT Almelo. This is probably exactly why Unive is persisting in their current course.

The response from Unive was essentially that they had sent the MRI scans, German medical reports, the ZGT Almelo physician's statement, etc. to their medical advisers, who supposedly then told Unive that they saw no reason to change from their earlier position, that my situation doesn't necessitate them to fully cover the therapies I am forced to undergo as a result of my intersex condition, and that there's no reason for them to clarify their position in any way or fashion.

This arrogant stance can in my view only be due to a smug sense at Unive's side that SKGZ will also deny that I'm intersex and thus deny my claim against Unive. This is a worry I also expressed to SKGZ during the hearing, as I mentioned in an earlier post. Of course, if SKGZ does this, they'd go in against the findings of three German clinics and the judgement of the Dutch legal system, as all of these have found me to be intersex.

I really hope that this will all be over soon and that SKGZ will decide in my favour. It'd really make my life a lot easier knowing that there's still the possibility of justice in the Netherlands despite everything.


Maya