San Francisco to provide transgender surgeries

San Francisco is slated to become the first U.S. city to offer sex-reassignment surgeries to transgender residents who are uninsured.

The move responds to transgender advocates who say the hormones and counseling now offered under the city's universal health plan are not enough for people who suffer from a disparity between their bodies and their gender identities. 

San Francisco hopes to have a comprehensive transgender health program up and running by 2014, said Public Health Director Barbara Garcia. Previously, sex-reassignment surgeries were specifically excluded from coverage under the city health plan, Healthy San Francisco.

"The community felt the exclusion on Healthy San Francisco was discriminatory and we wanted to change that as the first step," Garcia told The Associated Press.

San Francisco has been on the cutting edge of LGBT policy for decades. 

The city and Portland, Ore., already cover transgender surgeries for their employees. The number of major U.S. corporations that also cover the surgeries doubled last year, according to the AP.

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