By Chris Taylor
Reuters

NEW YORK — When Sara Davis Buechner began her transition from man to woman, she knew there were going to be emotional hurdles, like dealing with her family.

But there were financial costs, too. And she knew they were going to be forbidding.

Medical procedures like facial electrolysis cost USD$20,000 (712,000 baht). There was a year of therapy, required at the time to make sure Buechner, a renowned pianist, was a suitable candidate for transition – at USD$80 (2,800 baht) a session.

Since American options were just too pricey, Buechner opted for surgery in Thailand. The tab? USD$10,000 (360,000 baht), including flights.

This was in the early 2000s, and none of those costs were covered by insurers. She sold one of her two pianos, a Yamaha, to help foot the bill. "I emptied all my accounts," Buechner remembers. "And I consider myself one of the lucky ones."

Buechner was more than willing to pay those high bills, because it was the culmination of something she had known since childhood: She was female, despite having been born as David.

Transgender issues are more openly discussed these days, such as Caitlyn Jenner's transition from Olympic athelete Bruce Jenner. But the costs of transition can be overwhelming, especially for a population that is already marginalized.

The Philadelphia Center for Transgender Surgery, for instance, lists menus of procedures for both male-to-female transitions and female-to-male that total well over $100,000, or 3.6 million baht..

Meanwhile, corporations have been slow to help. According to the 2015 Employee Benefits Survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, just 5 percent of employers offer gender reassignment health care coverage to their staff.

That is up since 2011, when only 2 percent of companies did so. But progress has so far only been incremental.

Among larger companies, the numbers are more encouraging. One-third of Fortune 500 firms now offer healthcare coverage including transgender surgery and related medical costs, according to the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index report.

In addition, the provisions of Obamacare – as well as state-specific laws in places like California, New York and Oregon – have been pushing plans towards transgender-inclusive health coverage, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.

"The policy environment is changing for sure," says Jody Herman, a scholar of public policy at UCLA's Williams Institute. "The way anti-discrimination laws are being interpreted is moving in the direction of saying that exclusions to trans-related healthcare are not acceptable."

Lost Work

The costs of transition are not just medical, though. Buechner started losing recital engagements when venues found out about her personal story. She also had trouble booking any new ones.

When she applied to become a music teacher at more than 30 U.S. colleges, she didn't get a single response. (She is now an associate professor at Vancouver's University of British Columbia.)

No wonder so many transgender Americans are economically vulnerable. Fifteen percent report making less than $10,000 a year, according to the Center for American Progress, quadruple the average poverty rate.

The No. 1 tip from financial advisers: Start financial preparations early.

"Plan ahead, know what your costs are going to be, and what your insurance will cover and what it won't," says Paula Heichel, a financial adviser with Wells Fargo Advisors in Washington, D.C. who has counseled transgender referrals on their finances. "These cost are not to be taken lightly, and you have to be able to pay as you go."

Indeed, with a long enough timeline, it might be worth the effort to seek employment at one of the 418 major U.S. companies which offer at least one transgender-inclusive employee health plan (here). Otherwise, the costs could be very significant indeed.

"Just imagine, you have to take every stitch of clothing you own and put it in the garbage," Buechner says. "The best analogy I tell people is, 'What if you moved to Bolivia tomorrow, how much would it cost to start a totally new life?'"

"The costs are enormous. Start counting."

By Antoni Slodkowski and Soe Zeya Tun
Reuters

YANGON — An opposition lawmaker and two other people were attacked with machetes and injured on Thursday, in the first serious violent incident in campaigning for Myanmar's historic Nov. 8 election, his campaign manager said.

Naing Nan Lynn, a lower house lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, who is running for a seat in the regional assembly in Yangon, was attacked while campaigning around 9:30pm by three men with machetes.

The attackers were being held at a police station. Their motives were unknown.

"One of the guys came out and started yelling at the car. He returned with two other men with machetes and attacked the people around the campaign truck," Aung Myo Oo, an NLD campaign manager who witnessed the attack, told Reuters.

"The candidate suffered serious injuries after being hit on his head and his arm." The three injured people were taken for treatment Yangon General Hospital.

The attack will likely raise security concerns ahead of a rally by the NLD's charismatic Suu Kyi, who typically draws massive crowds, planned for Sunday at the heart of Yangon, the country's commercial capital and its largest city.

The NLD leader and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi, has criss-crossed the country without major incidents, galvanizing crowds with a message of sweeping change, faster reforms and a state respectful of ethnic minorities.

Tensions have been running high in the run up to the poll, in which the NLD is expected to trounce the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, or USDP, and the but the attack is the most serious case of election-related violence so far.

Myanmar's junta ceded power to a semi-civilian government four years ago after ruling for 49 years.

MAWLAMYINE, Myanmar — With just weeks before Myanmar’s landmark elections, a fleet of cars covered with stickers of the National Development Party carrying flag-waving party supporters and Buddhist monks crawled through the streets of Mawlamyine, Mon state’s capital.

The convoy was heading to the Strand Hotel on the banks of the Thanlwin River. Most party faithful were wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with the NDP’s symbol – a golden dancing peacock – some of the shirts also bore the slogan “racial protection law has come into effect!”

The NDP only became an official political party in early July 2015, but the Buddhist nationalist party has surged into contention in Myanmar politics, ranking fourth among political parties in terms of both funding and numbers of candidates fielded for the Nov. 8 poll.

On the lawn of the Strand Hotel, some 60 monks were assembled, many from the Maha Myaing Monastery and Myazedi (Yekyaung) Monastery, believed to be the cradle of the radical Buddhist group Ma Ba Tha. Behind them gathered hundreds more people, listening intently to the speakers.

“Around the world, every country, its people and religions, focus on their own interest. So it is out of the question that we do not safeguard and protect our race and religion,” said Nay Zin Latt, former presidential adviser and founder of the party, to applause from the audience. He was clad in a traditional pale apricot Burmese taikpone coat and a string of jasmine flowers round his neck.

‘We completely endorse the race and religion protection bills!’ reads a typical slogan on a campaign bus for The National Development Party. Photo: Myanmar Now / Phyo Thiha Cho

Religious tensions are running high in Buddhist-majority Myanmar ahead of the election, largely stoked by Ma Ba Tha, which has emerged as a powerful force.

In late August, President Thein Sein signed onto the statute books the last of four controversial “Race and Religion Protection Laws” championed by radical Buddhists but decried by rights groups as aimed at discriminating against the country’s Muslim minority, as well as eroding the rights of women.

The NDP strongly supports the laws, but its leaders deny that they are stirring up animosity towards Myanmar’s Muslim minority for political gain.

Some 350 NDP candidates will contest 134 seats in Lower House, 60 seats in Upper House and 160 seats for state and regions parliament, trailing only the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, the main opposition National League for Democracy of Aung San Suu Kyi, and the National Unity Party, formerly known as Burma Socialist Programme Party.

So how has the party managed to shake up the political landscape in such a short space of time? Paik Tin, a political columnist and head of policy for the NDP, said the party had the backing of many wealthy members.

In an interview at a wooden house in Mawlamyine with the NDP signboard hung outside, Paik Tin outlined the party’s platform, which appeared to be centered on “defending” Buddhism.  

 “We are insisting to protect race and religion because majority of our party members are Buddhists. The existing situation demands us to do so,” said Paik Tin, as party members around him used their mobile phones to record the interview and take photographs.

 “As some said our country is the last stronghold of Theravada Buddhism, so we are responsible to take seriously the protection of our religion and nationality. But we reject the accusation that we are using religion for political influence.”

 National Development Party supporters listen to speakers at an Oct. 12 rally in the Mon State capital of Mawlamyine. Photo: Myanmar Now / Phyo Thiha Cho

New Kid on the Block

The NDP was formed in the early part of 2015 by presidential adviser and prominent businessman Nay Zin Latt, who resigned from his post to found the new political movement.

According to the Union Election Commission, the NDP applied for the formation of a party in March and for registration in early July. Aung Htwe, the party vice chairman, said it now counts members in the hundreds of thousands across the country.

The party says its platform is not only based on religious nationalism, it says it is seeking to grow national prosperity, improve education and healthcare and bring an end to armed conflicts in Myanmar.  But its opponents say its populist message will not appeal to better educated voters.

Thaung Hla, chairman of National Unity Party in Mawlamyine, said his party has instructed its 31 candidates in Mon state not follow the NDP’s populist approach and to keep religion out of political campaigning.

 “We do not accept mixing religion and politics. Religion should not be misused in politics,” he said, adding that his party had instructed its 31 candidates in Mon state not to use religion in political campaigning.

Although the NDP has made no secret of its support for the new laws, in speeches, campaign slogans and banners, Aung Ko Ko, a Lower House candidate for the NDP, looked irritated when asked if his party was an extension of the radical Buddhist Ma Ba Tha movement.

“We are accused of conducting campaigns in collaboration with Ma Ba Tha to use religion for politics. It is not true. But we have common objectives,” the 40-year-old ethnic Mon said.

He said his party received spontaneous support from young people who form the volunteer groups that organize alms donations for monks in Mawlamyine.

But many among the monks’ order reject the NDP’s campaign tactics.

Religion and Politics

Ven Silacara, deputy chief  Buddhist monk of Ramanya Nikaya, which has great influence on the Buddhists of Mon state, said while he supported the nationalistic laws, they should not be used in political campaigns.

The 70-year-old monk lectures to 800 monks and novices every day at a monastery in Mawlamyine.

“We appreciate the emergence of nationalistic law, but we will not take part in campaign of political parties,” he said.

Another prominent Mon monk, Venerable Okkansa, who was detained for over 15 years in the notorious Insein prison for political activities, agreed: “All political parties are conducting campaigns. But they do not use religion for attracting votes.”

Mi Kon Chan, an NLD candidate from Paung Township, said some politicians were whipping up fear among Buddhist voters, particularly in rural areas, who had been told their religion would be under threat if the NLD wins the election, after the party objected to the new “race and religion” laws in the last parliament.

 “I have experienced dirty campaigning,” said Mi Con Chan, a Buddhist woman, married to a Buddhist. “They said my husband is Kalar (Muslim) and I am not a Buddhist.”

Story: Phyo Thiha Cho