The Great Race for Coverage | Bobbie Lea Bennet (1947- 2019): Not Just Cistory

There’s a saying ‘Those who don’t learn their history are doomed to repeat it’ credited to George Santayana, a Spanish Philosopher (Virginia Tech). There’s another saying as well… ‘wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey,” which is attributed to the Doctor. Both suggest that, in their own ways, time is a loop. For those of us who are familiar with Trans and Queer History (either through research or living it) and are currently experiencing current events in the United States this feels extra relevant. 

At the time of the writing of this blog post “25 states have enacted laws/ policies limiting youth access to GAC [Gender Affirming Care]” (Kates, 2024). There have also recently been court cases regarding transgender individuals’ ability to have their insurance covering their Gender Affirming Care, particularly surgeries. 

Just this year “[a] federal appellate court in Richmond became the first in the country to rule that state health-care plans must pay for gender-affirming surgeries” (Weiner, 2024). Just next door,”[i]In West Virginia, transgender Medicaid users challenged the state’s program, which since 2004 has by law banned “transsexual surgeries…. [and] In North Carolina, state employees challenged their coverage, which in 2018 excluded surgical treatment of gender dysphoria — the clinical diagnosis of a disconnect between a person’s gender and birth sex”  (Weiner ,2024). The fight for state and federal healthcare programs to cover gender-affirming care for transgender individuals is still very much ongoing.

And now we come to the subject of this installment of ‘Not Just Cistory’, Bobbie Lea Bennett. What Bennett is most known for, perhaps, is not only being the first person to have her gender-affirming care (commonly referred to as sex-reassignment surgery or SRS at the time) covered by her insurance but for forcing Medicare to keep to their word to do so.

Early Life

Bobbie Lea Bennett was born on March 31st 1947 with osteogenesis imperfecta (Phoenix, 2022). Hopkins Medicine explains that “Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is an inherited (genetic) bone disorder that is present at birth. It is also known as brittle bone disease” (Johns Hopkins, 2022). This condition meant that she was a lifelong wheelchair user and that she was familiar with society’s response to someone who was different and needed medical treatment to alleviate the suffering caused by this difference.

Insurance Bait and Switch

Not much is available online about Bobbie Lea’s life, until the late seventies. Bennett was receiving transition services “through the Gender Identity Clinic at Galveston, Texas… [and] she had been told that the cost of her surgeries would be covered by Medicare under Social Security’s disability benefits program.” (p. 245, Matte). 

However, after receiving this life-changing surgery, she was denied coverage by Medicare, allegedly with no reason given for this change in tone (Phoenix, 2022) It was reported, later that year, that the decision had been reversed  “after ‘irate taxpayers’ flooded the Medicare offices with the phone calls opposing state payment for sex reassignment surgery under any circumstance” (p. 246, Matte).
It’s not hard to imagine, even 46 years later, angry citizens x-ing (is that what we call tweeting now? I’ve never been clear on that) about how ‘this is why Obamacare is ruining this country!!’. It’s certainly not an extinct mindset, as the many, many different cases currently being made to obstruct access for trans youth to life-saving health care.

Fighting Back

Regardless of the reason for the decision, Bennet decided to fight back.  She “mounted a very public media campaign to claim what she saw as her rightful benefits. She drove from her home in San Diego, first to the White House and then to Medicare Director Thomas M. Tierney’s office at Medicare headquarters in Baltimore, which she refused to leave until he would meet with her” (p. 246, Matte).

As a transgender woman who was also disabled, she qualified for medicare, and its coverage of her medical procedures, regardless of whether being transgender was considered a disability or not. This was different from other contemporary cases, which had relied on the idea that being transexual (as it was referred to at the time) was a disability, and therefore, the medical procedures to help mitigate it, ought to be covered by Medicare (p. 245 Matte). This intersectional identity gave Bobbie Lea Bennett an advantage of sorts, in terms of her argument.

Between the publicity her case had received, her right to coverage due to her existing disability outside of her gender, and her determination to see things through, “three days after their meeting, she received a cheque in the mail for $4600” (p. 246, Matte )  which would be worth $22,191.47 in today’s money, according to US Inflation Calculator. According to Transition, when the Los Angeles Times picked up the story, “Medicaid denied that the purpose of the cheque was to cover her sex-reassignment surgery and claimed that they were simply correcting a bureaucratic error in payments owed” (p. 246, Matte ).

Support & Connection

As well as having the support of the Medicare board (no matter how reluctant it was), Bennett seems to have had a supportive family. Four years later, in 1981, Bobbie’s sister, gave birth to a child, acting as a surrogate for Bobbie and her husband (Seattle Daily Times). This was another instance of Bobbie being in the news, as the Seattle Daily Times published a small article on January 17th, 1981 about the event.

Bennett was the host of “‘Barbie’s Talk Show’ which aired in Austin Texas….[it] was a community television program to raise public awareness about handicapped accessibility issues” (Honaker forest Lawn, 2019). “Bobbie founded the St. Tammany Organization for the Handicapped” as well as her talk show (Honaker Forest Lawn, 2019). Her understanding of creating visibility around an issue, and the importance of connecting with an audience may have helped her harness the media power she needed to make her cross-country trek a success.

Conclusion

Bennett has also been an inspiration to others, looking to create a conection and visibility for disability rights. The  screenplay, titled ‘Emily Driver’s Great Race Through Space and Time’ “follows 12-year-old Emily as she sets off on a time-traveling trip across the country after being denied a request for a needed wheelchair. On her journey, she meets leaders who fought for equal rights for people with disabilities throughout history” (Pierce, 2020) The creators, Mozgala and Brenner directly credit Bobbie Lea Bennett as a source of inspiration for the piece (Pierce, 2020).

Sometimes it’s hard to feel like we, as a queer and trans community, are making any progress when it seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same. To combat this feeling of hopelessness that comes with cyclical oppression, it’s essential to look to our elders and learn from their experiences, as well as to work together with and learn from other marginalized communities. We may not be a part of them, but many members of the trans and queer communities have intersectionalities that fall encompass those experiences.

Bibliography

Johns Hopkins University. (2022, July 19). Osteogenesis imperfecta. Johns Hopkins Medicine. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/osteogenesis-imperfecta#:~:text=What%20is%20osteogenesis%20imperfecta%20in,formed%20normally%2C%20and%20other%20problems.

Kates, L. D. and J. (2024c, August 22). Policy tracker: Youth access to gender affirming care and state policy restrictions. KFF. https://www.kff.org/other/dashboard/gender-affirming-care-policy-tracker/

Matte, N. (2014, November). Historicizing liberal American transnormativities: Medicine, Media, activism, 1960-1990 (thesis). Historicizing Liberal American Transnormativities: Media, Medicine, Activism, 1960-1990. University of Toronto. Retrieved August 23, 2024, from https://hdl.handle.net/1807/68460.

Obituary for Bobbie Lea Peterson at Honaker Funeral Home. Obituary | Bobbie Lea Peterson of Madisionville, Louisiana | Honaker Funeral Home. (2019). https://www.honakerforestlawn.com/obituary/bobbie-peterson

Phoenix, B. (2024, May 7). LGBT+ History month X disabled students group - Bobbie Lea Bennett. THE HOOT. https://thehootstudents.com/lgbt-history-month-x-disabled-students-group-bobbie-lea-bennett/

Pierce, J. R. (2020, March 2). Disability takes the wheel in “Emily driver.” AMERICAN THEATRE. https://www.americantheatre.org/2020/03/02/disability-takes-the-wheel-in-emily-driver/

Sister of transsexual bears baby boy for her. (1981, January 17). Seattle Daily Times. Retrieved August 23, 2024, from https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/j96020802.

Virginia Tech. (2019, January 8). History repeating. College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences | Virginia Tech. https://liberalarts.vt.edu/magazine/2017/history-repeating.html

Weiner, R. (2024, April 29). Court says state health-care plans can’t exclude gender-affirming surgery - The Washington Post. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/04/29/gender-affirming-surgery-state-health-care-plans/