The modern lepers

 photo LeQuan_zpsbjf0nznt.jpgLeQuan Edwards is 52 and transgender.

She has a problem...and it is not what bathroom to use.

That’s the dumbest thing. It’s so ridiculous. C’mon folks, let’s find another story.

--Edwards

Iowa’s Civil Rights Act expressly prohibits discrimination based on gender identity. Still, Edwards’ caregivers have been unable to find a place for her to live.

Last August, Edwards had a stroke. She went to a rehabilitation facility in Clarinda, Iowa, and arrived at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines in March with bad wounds on her legs.

She was scheduled to be discharged Tuesday. But a hospital social worker said hospital staff checked with roughly 90 nursing homes and rehab facilities and none — except one that was 2 1/2 hours away in Muscatine — would take her.

Edwards’ legs are wrapped in compresses. She has very limited use of her right arm and needs help getting to a bathroom. She also struggles with mental health issues, including bipolar and PTSD.

Her friend Brian Carter, a retired pastor, has been trying to help her. Carter says that a social worker told him that facilities which are accepting new residents say men don’t want to room with a person who is biologically male but identifies as a woman. Neither do their female residents.

And, of course, Medicaid won't pay for a private room except temporarily.

The problem is huge. I can’t tell you how many people get turned away. And in the state of Iowa, you can’t discriminate against transgender people like this. You don’t have a lot of power.

Imagine you’re in your mid-70s, you’re really sick and you’re transgender.

--Donna Red Wing, executive director of One Iowa, the statewide advocacy group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people

Last year, an intern attempted to survey 50 Iowa nursing homes and rehabilitation centers to determine whether they accepted transgender residents or if they would be willing to provide training so staff could learn how to be more welcoming to transgender residents.

The reception was very chilly. Of the 50, only three responded.

--Red Wing

If someone’s identity is female, you have to treat them as a female because that’s what they are. It’s the law that people are to be treated with dignity and respect, and it’s the right thing to do.

--Red Wing

Nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities that accept Medicaid patients are prohibited from discriminating against residents based on gender identity, according to Amy Lorentzen McCoy, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Human Services.

Facilities are supposed to factor in available resources, training and staff when deciding which residents they will accept. But Medicaid recipients can't always be served in their home communities, McCoy said.

Their personal care needs may require training or resources that aren’t immediately available in a nursing facility in their community that accepts Medicaid reimbursement.

She had already undergone hormone therapy before suffering the stroke and was saving what money she could to have sex reassignment surgery.

Edwards, who had previously lived in apartments, was living with her dog in her car at the time. As bad as that was, she said, it doesn’t compare to how she feels now.

I haven’t really asked for anything in this life. This is the first time,” she said. “But I am being treated like a leper. No one deserves to be treated like this.

Edwards cries and gets upset easily these days, in part because she is so worried about being moved so far from her mother.

She hoped Medicaid would help her find an efficiency apartment where she could live alone, near her mother, cook for herself and perhaps get another dog. Iowa’s newly privatized managed care system is supposed to have more flexibility in providing that kind of care, but it has to be cost-effective. Edwards' provider is United HealthCare.

Doctors have advised against my daughter living on her own.

They said they’ve taken her as far as they can, and that they don’t believe she’s going to get better than she is.

--Bobby Edwards, LeQuan's mother

Bobbi Edwards says she, too, has a litany of physical issues — including epilepsy, congestive heart failure and two kinds of arthritis. But Medicaid has managed to provide her the care she needs at home.

I got all these things wrong with me, and I still get to live on my own and go to the senior citizens center, do a little shopping. I’ve got two pets.

--Bobbi

Edwards' doctors and physical therapists say she has so many care issues that a 24-hour facility would best meet her needs.

In the meantime, Edwards' daily nursing care and meals alone can cost more than $1,000 a day, not all of which is reimbursed by Medicaid, Social Work Manager Frank Kiener said.

Dylan Woodward, a clinical social worker in Minnesota who grew up in Iowa, questioned why Edwards’ transgender status would have been made public to others and why other residents should get to decide where transgender people live.

If they cannot accommodate her, they should be required to give her a single room at the Medicaid rates and eat the loss. It should not be the patient’s problem that they cannot accommodate her for whatever reason.

--Woodward

Edwards has struggled to get around after her stroke, but last week she took several steps with assistance.

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Comments

Slightkc's picture

to speak on this subject knowing as little as I do about trans. But finally I see one person quoted in this article asking the same question I've had for a long time now...

Why say anything about gender in this or any other situation? And WHY make public that which obviously is private?!

A person who's identifies as female should be placed with another female in a hospital or nursing home room. I mean, I've been in the rehab homes with my mother and at no time did anyone wave any body part that could be perceived as sexual. No T, no A, and no D... not even a naked butt. For Pete's sake, what is the matter with people that they can't treat everyone with respect and dignity? Have we become so cliquish that a person must meet certain "standards" to associate with each particular clique? No wonder the whole country has gone insane!

What's infuriating to me is it's a very narrow interpretation of the Xtian religion that's driving all the divisiveness... in a country where we're suppose to have separation of church and state! If their beliefs are going to decide all the very personal and private options an individual has, then I say tax the churches. They're no longer preaching... they're governing by default.

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...the nursing homes had access to LeQuan's medical records and thought her gender would matter to their residents...so they decided they had to share...and give them a veto on whether she should be able to live with them.

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featheredsprite's picture

in some apartment or something and have visiting home care to look in on both of them?

I guess that would be too logical.

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Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.

enhydra lutris's picture

If they cannot accommodate her, they should be required to give her a single room at the Medicaid rates and eat the loss. It should not be the patient’s problem that they cannot accommodate her for whatever reason.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --