I took a whiff of my right arm underarm this morning, and had no idea that I was smelling what ObamaCare smells like. Or should I say, the armpit of my right “chicken wing” smells an awful much like what Taxpayer-Funded Tranny-Care would smell like, and this stinkiness is at the heart of the ObamaCare healthcare reform plan.

And on top of stinking like my armpit this morning, ObamaCare “Obama’s Tranny-Care” looks an awful lot like me too…except, umm, circa 2004. Who knew? (Hey — couldn’t President Obama use a more current picture of me? I’m thinner and cuter now, thanks to Bush’s “Tranny-Care” healthcare plan!)

Autumn Sandeen: The Americans For Truth About Homosexuality's Poster Child For Obama 'Tranny-Care'And yet apparently, President Obama has been working diligently behind the scenes to fund genital reconstruction surgery — apparently this was all part of his evil plan from the get-go. From Peter LaBarbera’s Americans For Truth About Homosexuality comes an article entitled Taxpayer-Funded Tranny-Care? ObamaCare Could Mandate Free ‘Sex-Change’ Surgeries

Transsexual activists like Autumn Sandeen (…that’s his “female” name — adopted after leaving his traditional role as husband and father) are caught up in gender confusion. For some, this culminates in body-disfiguring operations to “change” into the opposite sex. No American should be forced to pay for these nature-rejecting procedures with his or her tax dollars. Homosexual groups like Human Rights Campaign boast of their support for taxpayer-funded “sex-change” operations in cities like San Francisco.

Folks, you don’t have to be very politically sophisticated to predict that GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) activists and their liberal allies are going to demand “Tranny-Care” under a federal health insurance system, in the name of “fairness” and “inclusion” – even if it’s not passed initially as a “benefit.” And yes, the idea of subsidizing body-disfiguring “operations” surely would be considered “queer” by the average tax-paying American. Already, trans activists are strategizing on the best ways to get taxpayers to pay for their gender-confused mutilations “sex change” procedures — and Human Rights Campaign and other homosexual lobby groups boast of their support for same in cities like San Francisco.

– Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.com

Mr. LaBarbera then goes off on to highlight the Liberty Counsel‘s take on HR 3200 where the “sex change operations” are brought up as a red herring, and then he follows up with the Liberty Council piece by his friend Matt Barber (that Pam wrote about yesterday).

Seriously. Personal attacks related to when I divorced my ex-spouse seem a bit much from someone whose Republican and Christian peers include Former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Senator John Ensign, and ex-Senator Larry “Wide Stance” Craig. And indirectly referring to me and my trans peers by the term “tranny” when he no doubt knows the term is often used as a defamatory term? — including in how Mr. LaBarbera has used this term as a defamatory term in this very article?

And frankly, what does any of that have to do with healthcare reform?

Let’s be frank here. This discussion of my ex-spouse, my children, and sex change operations in regards to healthcare reform are red herrings. These discussion points of abortions going to be federally funded by healthcare reform (these won’t be), that America’s over-65 year old folk are going to have government employees at their homes demanding they make living wills (they won’t), and now “sex change operations” are diversionary tactics, which are related to being obstructive with regards to healthcare reform. These opponents to healthcare reform are also being intentionally obtuse on the real issues related to the current unsustainable cost growth tied to American healthcare, insurance reform, and how 47-million Americans currently have no health insurance.

And frankly too, Mr. LaBarbera is trying to engage in the fallacious argument of needling by directing personal attacks at me and using defamatory language regarding all trans people.

What Mr. LaBarbera doesn’t seem to be aware of is that I’m already on the President Bush “Tranny-Care” system. In 2002, I was declared to be a service-connected, disabled veteran. I spent years serving America in the United States Navy, and am officially listed as a Persian Gulf War veteran (although I never was involved in combat operations); I retired from the military with 20-years of service to my country in 2000. Currently, my Veterans Administration (VA) disability rating is 100%.

When I had my Gastric Bypass in February of 2008, American taxpayers paid for it. The point I’m trying to make with that is that healthcare for most trans people — including me — does include medical treatments related to being trans, but more importantly we have health issues of the types that the broad swath of Americans have. The shape of my peers’ and my genitalia shouldn’t place treatment for our basic healthcare needs out of many Americans’ reach, my trans peers’ reach, and my reach.

Let’s keep in mind what those who are bringing up “sex change operations” don’t really care that much about whether or not I personally get genital reconstruction surgery paid for by the government; what these folk really want to do is derail all healthcare reform — and if badmouthing trans people like me is how they believe they can derail it, then they’re going to badmouth trans people like me.

Peter is just being a tool, but what’s new.

~~~~~

Further Reading (and a big hat tip!):

* Good As You: The Autumn Of Pete’s Discontent