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Rather upseting news from xtra.ca :

The Alberta government delisted funding for gender reassignment surgery this week, and trans activists are quickly organizing to push for the program's reinstatement.

In Tuesday’s budget, the province announced it was cutting the GRS program to save $700,000 a year. Alberta plans to spend $12.9 billion on healthcare in 2009, according to figures released this week. The GRS program funded surgeries for between 10 and 20 people a year.

The decision to end the GRS program comes just weeks after the province said it would add sexual orientation but not gender identity to the province’s human rights legislation.

A Facebook Group has been created for people to join and discuss the issue, as well as to organize a response. It hardly seems like this is about saving money when so few are performed each year. The program is estimated to cost about 17 cents per Albertan.

Here is a backgrounder on SRS in Canada from Egale.ca. The backgrounder has not been updated with the new Alberta ruling (it still lists it as being covered under their provincial health plan.