Thursday, May 7, 2009

Text of Letter

[Barbara Garcia – Department of Public Health
Deputy Director, Community Health Services
1380 Howard Street, Room 544
San Francisco, CA 94103]


May 7, 2009


Dear [Ms. Garcia,]

I am writing to oppose the Department of Public Health closing the
Gender Program through the Center for Special Problems after 43
years. This is a significant loss to the transsexual, transgender and
gender non conforming community.

The Gender Program specifically works with people who are the most
disenfranchised and who have been discriminated against in culturally
incompetent settings and want a gender specialist. The Gender
Program’s clients are severely discriminated against and multiply
stigmatized related to gender presentation, gender history, mental
health histories, poverty, substance abuse, HIV and homelessness.
Most of CSP’s gender clients are trauma and violence survivors related
to gender identity.

Relocating and re-designating the gender program coordinator apart
from the rest of the therapists who have provided gender related
mental health effectively destroys the gender program. This change
interferes with or terminates mental health care for the over 50
transsexual, gender non conforming and transgender clients currently
at the Center for Special Problems. There are very few monolingual
Spanish or Cantonese speaking gender sensitive therapists and this
change reduces accessible treatment.

A small accommodation that adds no additional expense on the part of
CBHS would save the Gender Program: co-locating the Gender Program
Coordinator with the HIV team, allows the Gender Program to remain in
existence and continue to care for the majority of the current
clients. CSP’s HIV team is committed to caring for gender clients,
seeing the connection between HIV and stigma in the transgender
population in San Francisco.

It is vital to keep this program in our city. Please reconsider the
termination of the Gender Program. I greatly appreciate your
consideration of this matter and hope you
will be able to preserve the care for these most vulnerable members of
our community.


Very truly yours,


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