Hermaphrodites in Canada file human rights complaints over lost gov't funding

At least three dozen sex change patients have filed human rights complaints since the Health Department cut funding for operations that can cost up to $80,000.

Jordenne Prescott, a 31-year-old from Calgary who is waiting for male-to-female surgery, says she was told by the Alberta Human Rights Commission last week that her complaint will be heard.

A lawyer for the commission couldn't confirm that, but said most of the complaints are still under review and not all of them will proceed.

Prescott says the Alberta government suggested when it cut the funding in April's budget that sex change patients already in the system would get funding, but that hasn't proven to be the case.

A similar cost-cutting measure by the Ontario government in 1998 resulted in a partial victory for sex change patients after they filed similar human rights complaints.

An Ontario human rights tribunal ruled in 2005 that the province should not have denied funding for those already enrolled at a sex change clinic.

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