Wow I am blown away by the support that I've received since I posted my personal story about issues arising from the intersection of our broken healthcare system and our broken prison system. Thank you all.
     As a follow up to some of the comments people have made let me explain a few things: my concerns about jailing isn't so much about the arrest itself nor being held immediately upon arrest. I am concerned about any time I might serve if I am brought up on charges- for instance when I interrupted Obama's speech in protest which under the recently minted “trespass” law could carry 10 years. 10 years in a men's facility as a legal and medical woman would be hellish. I am a strictly peaceful protester who dissents to the way our country is being run for profit by mega corporations. Protest itself has been criminalized and it leaves me afraid as someone who exercises my constitutional rights that I will be imprisoned at some point.
     In terms of SRS (sexual reassignment surgery): the debate over the medical necessity of SRS is that it's “cosmetic” and thus unnecessary- that medically my organ works fine and thus there is no reason to perform the surgery. This is a weak at best argument- for instance do we tell people whose doctors say lap-band surgery is medically required that their stomachs work fine and thus refuse them? People complain that they shouldn't have to pay high insurance rates to cover peoples SRS- but SRS is relatively inexpensive compared to say cancer so that too seems flimsy. Now where things get really odd is that my healthcare team suggested that insurance (and I will have to check this with my insurance company) would cover just the removal surgery. Thus it is medically necessary to remove my genitals (which defeats their own earlier argument that the surgery is purly cosmetic) but not necessary medically to have genitals...? Lastly SRS is in fact medically necessary and here's why: DSM5 medically recognizes Gender Dysphoria (not identifying with your physical gender) as a mental disorder it does not however recognize being transgender as a being a mental disorder. Today I have a mental disorder however if I have SRS I will no longer have a mental disorder because I will no longer be at odds with my physical gender. SRS for me would cure a mental disorder.
     To those looking to help: I will be working on petitions to change the prison housing policy for the state of Massachusetts, and if there is anyone trying to do impact litigation for health insurance SRS coverage please contact me I believe my case would be compelling. If I am held in a gender inappropriate way please bombard MA correction and state government with calls, and protest if possible- certainly spread the word should that happen. As soon as the petitions exist I will post links to them. If you are interested in supporting the protesting I do check out massops.weebly.com. If I am held and cannot pay bail that's where a wepay might appear. Otherwise again I want to say thanks all of your comments and support has already helped. :)
     Lastly to those pointing out the many many other issues with our prison system: I wholeheartedly agree prison for profit which allows people to be held in deplorable conditions is a disgusting thing in its entirety. Prison rape is serious no matter the genders of the people involved and I certainly agree that the crime in prisons are abhorrent and should also be addressed. Have not yet been to prison tho I cannot speak with authority on these matters so when I published my story, or perhaps it should be called my story to date, I didn't include these things (bc happily they aren't part of my story yet- and hopefully ever). I published my story with the aim to open peoples eyes to what I'm going through and what the precedents are that allowing this might set. I also published my story because sharing it was a way for me to vent the pressure I'm under and hopefully do some good.
    be  well,
K

    A gun is pressed to your head and you are offered this Sophie’s choice A. you have your genitals removed, or B. you are tortured, face probable rape, and possible murder. There is no option C... how can anyone make that choice? Yet that is exactly the choice I face.
     I am a peaceful activist in America which means I face a near constant likelihood of arrest, in fact the police went on my local Fox nightly news to threaten me with arrest adding in the report that I had not broken any law. I have not been arrested nor charged with anything yet thankfully and I am not in any way a criminal but as an occupier I was processed as a “potential terrorist” by DHS making my odds of arrest and detention more likely. This is disturbing on its own but for me it has the added complication that I am transgender and pre-op.
     I am legally female. My drivers license has an “F' on it. I have piles of documentation from doctors and therapists saying I am female. I need SRS (sexual reassignment surgery) which is part of the treatment for the medical condition I have. SRS is not required to legally change my gender in Massachusetts, and I have already chemically transitioned. The scary part for me is that if I am arrested despite my physical appearance and legal gender I would be put in a men's facility. (the picture is of me) How do you think I’d do?
     SRS isn't covered by my insurance who claim it's “cosmetic” and “optional” I disagree fully of course with that assessment for me SRS is a completely necessary procedure that would put my mind, body, and legal gender all in the same category. SRS would also mean if I am arrested as threatened I would be in held in a women's jail. I cannot afford SRS on my own.
     Recently as part of the process towards getting SRS I spoke with my therapist who works with the transgender program at my health care provider's office (my healthcare provider is part of a well thought of transgender program). I was told that my insurance would probably cover the removal of my genitals. If I was to have my genitals removed and I am arrested I would probably be put in a woman’s facility but I would never have either type of genitals again... or I could keep my genitals and face any detention in a men's facility which would mean either I'd be in protective custody (solitary 23.5 hours/day lock down) or I'd be in general population and highly vulnerable to rape and murder. I live in constant fear of arrest due to my peaceful protesting and my medical condition that could easily lead to my torture- and it is torture- lock down for 23.5 hours and solitary confinement &/or rape and violence.
     How can the state of Massachusetts consider me legally female yet decide to place me in a men's jail? How can a Healthcare provider and Health insurance claim that having genitals isn't medically necessary? The implications of these two issues goes far beyond just me or even just transgender people. That the state of Ma will house people in a prison that doesn't match their legal gender and doesn't match what gender their doctors say they are it is a cause of concern for everyone. That a healthcare provider and insurance both believe that it is medically acceptable to remove someone's genitalia and leave them with no genitals while claiming that any reconstruction is not medically necessary should concern everyone. If you get hurt or have an infection/ illness that damages your genitalia are you going to face what I did? Will you too be told that your genitals will be removed without any reconstructive surgery?
     There is a simple solution- it's time to cover SRS in medically necessary cases as specified by medical professionals (and maybe we should stop arresting peaceful protesters for exercising their constitutionally protected rights). Massachusetts department of corrections should listen to doctors diagnosis of gender. It's time to make sure that everyone is protected by a healthcare and health insurance system that regards genitals as medically necessary. I'm tired of living in terror.

Dear friends,

Obama-Romney care is universal health insurance not universal heathcare, and anyone who has been seriously long term ill can explain the difference. Our government is forcing everyone to get insured and calling it healthcare, yet they have done nothing to address the issues in the health system. Our system is being run for profit, and it's extremely profitable, by massive corporations. There are so many different corporations all making bank on our illness that the cost of care has skyrocketed to unpayable (especially in the new economy). Every time you receive care you are being bilked by insurance, a hospital or doctors office, a pharmaceutical company. Now when I say bilked I mean you are overpaying by many times over. Pharma and insurance are the major issue (though for profit hospitals are certainly a problem too). The question I have for you is why do we want to make the health of our citizens a profit enterprise?

When the motivation is profit instead of care then you are in trouble. Suddenly your doctor's first responsibility is to shareholders and not to you, and this is when you're care will be second rate. Wait though because you aren't even your doctors second priority- there's the Pharmaceutical companies to think of, so we have to get you their meds regardless of if you need them. So as an afterthought you might get treatment for whatever it was you walked in the door with... or not- unless can we do a shit-ton of tests? Great thanks! Oh here's the bill, and by the way your health insurance will only cover some and umm because they think treating you for illness is “unproven” they won't actually pay any. Soooooo yup you're fucked. You can walk in with a headache and walk out with a headache a stomachache from stress, radiation from testing, broke, and filled with drugs for “restless legs” or some other bullshit.

Each player takes a massive cut, hospitals have large overhead to begin with, but now they need to extract every cent to be profitable. Insurance companies exist to make huge pools of money for themselves, and the best way they can do it is to deny you as much as possible while charging you as much as possible. The pharmaceutical companies creat drugs to treat- and not cure you because they want you ill and taking their products forever. They have no financial interest in curing anything. Each member of this takes a huge amount of cash directly from you, and this is why the cost of our system is out of control. Both candidates have passed legislation to mandate that you get health insurance and feed this vampire system while doing nothing to address the real issues or to provide any actual healthcare.

There are things that should not be unregulated business enterprise- education and healthcare are two of the prime examples. I want universal healthcare because it is one of the basic human rights that any government should exist to protect. One of the ways to judge a society is on how it treats its sick, and our country has been failing, and will continue to fail. Healthcare is not a luxury item- you are sick and you need treatment, so the system is a basic necessity and should be run as such. Right now we are hostage to the system we must use because we get ill, and we must be insured under law so we are forced too have our money taken from us and given to the already wealthy corporations involved.

This system is in place to keep us sick powerless and broke. Demand better from your elected leaders. I'm not usually a Michael Moore fan, but watch Sicko if you want to see the issues of vampire healthcare and insurance for profit.
Be well