Starting in August, Brown University's student health insurance plan will cover sex change operations for students who want to change genders, Baptist Press reports. "We identified this as an important benefit for students to have access to," Jeanne Hebert, director of the university's insurance services, told The Brown Daily Herald, the student newspaper. Insurance companies typically consider such surgeries cosmetic and exclude them from coverage. The total package of "sexual reassignment surgeries," hormone therapy and related services can cost up to $50,000 per person, the newspaper said. Kelly Garrett, Brown's LGBTQ Center coordinator, said the insurance policy changes were part of a broader effort to keep transgender students from being discriminated against at the university. In addition, Garrett said, the university is training people in health services and psychological services to be sensitive to transgender students, and the LGBTQ Center is compiling lists of gender-neutral restrooms on campus and advocating for gender-neutral housing options for students.
