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 Editorials | Issues | December 2007 
Sex Change with Public Money
 California Catholic Daily
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The Social Democratic Coalition - the group of political parties which last April approved unrestricted abortion in Mexico’s Federal District (which includes Mexico City), and in November 2006 approved the “Gay Marriage” initiative - is now proposing to reform the district’s civil code and health law in order to provide sex-change services.
The initiative has two main goals. One, to expedite the name-change procedure in official documents; and, two, to include the sex-change surgical operations in health services of public institutions. In other words, the initiative seeks to finance sex-change operations with public money.
In a Dec. 4 interview with the Mexico City daily Milenio, Jorge Carlos Díaz, the Coalition’s legislative coordinator at the Federal District Assembly, said the initiative is now ready and will be introduced in January.
The Coalition includes the Party of the Democratic Revolution (which by itself is the majority in the local assembly) plus three other small leftist parties. The “gay marriage” initiative was approved with the 43 votes of the Coalition and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), with the sole opposition of the National Action Party (PAN). A similar vote approved the abortion legalization.
“Public health institutions will guarantee the integral health of patients having a sex change surgery; including his or her complete physical, psychical and social well-being,” says the initiative.
To qualify for the sex change surgery, a person will have to have attained the legal age. He or she must also present the written testimony of a physician or psychiatrist certifying that the treatment is necessary “in order to guarantee the applicant’s integral health.”
According to the initiative, “sexual minorities” include those defined by their “sexual preference or orientation” (gays, lesbians and bisexuals) and those defined by their “gender identity” (transvesties, transgenders, and transsexuals.) The initiative defines “gender identity” as “the profound sensation a person has of being male or female, or sometimes something located somewhere between both.”
In a press conference, PAN local assemblyman Antonio Cepeda said this initiative only intends to make some “media noise,” to deviate attention from the real health problems of the Mexican people. And Mariana Gómez del Campo, PAN’s president for the Federal District, said that “by no means will we support that initiative.”
Catholic lawyers, on their part, warned that there will be another confrontation (the last one being about the abortion legalization initiative) with the Coalition legislators if they try to pass the sex change initiative.
Armando Martínez, president of the Catholic Attorneys Association, said “minorities have their rights, which are to be respected; but what some legislators intend to do is to brandish the political flag of a community with certain psychological problems - of people who do not accept themselves as they are.”
Catholic teaching, Martinez explained, allows surgery for people who have the characteristics of both sexes at birth. In these cases, parents and doctors, based on a comprehensive study, determine which sex the person identifies with.
“But trying to sexually mutilate themselves based on psychological problems and political whims is something we will not accept,” said Martinez. |
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