Member-only story
Dear Legislators, Gender Transitions Are Not One-Size-Fits-All
By Lonna Dawson
This story originally appeared on Narratively, a digital publication and creative studio focused on ordinary people with extraordinary stories — get thee to more amazing tales on the new face of adoptive parents, a series on paperless people, and clandestine love.
As laws change, legislators must recognize that not all trans people want the same thing.
New York State’s new law requiring coverage of gender reassignment surgery sounded like a game changer. The problem: not all trans people want the same thing.
Monique Fontaine eyes her cellphone screen as she records a video from Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital in New York City. Flanked by cords and containers and a copious amount of beige, she and her doctor have agreed to enlarge her breasts, so she can look more feminine, from a B cup to a C cup, with implants surgically placed above the pectoralis muscle and filled with 425cc’s of saline. It’s not her first such procedure, but it is the first one performed in a medical facility, a far departure from the other locations — a Times Square hotel room, someone’s living room in Brooklyn — where she’s had work done before. “See ya on the flip side,” Fontaine says to her social media followers…