Jan Lukas Buterman wants Jasperites to know the troubles facing the transgendered.

“It’s not like the Rocky Horror Picture Show. People are in horrific distress over this,” Buterman said.

Buterman spoke at the Jasper Legion on human rights day about the decision by the Alberta government to delist gender reassignment operations, as well as his own experience of being fired from his job as a substitute teacher after advising his employer about his decision to change his gender. The talk marked the conclusion of Jasper’s 16 days of activism.

“When Health Minister Ron Liepert chose to delist gender reassignment surgery to save $700,000 annually, he did so with complete ignorance to the impact of his decision... his ignorance is of great interest to me,” Buterman said. “A large group of people, who are highly visible, highly marginalized, were not able to achieve the full rights of citizenship.”

Buterman told the crowd reducing access to surgeries which are required by transgendered people is tantamount to creating a second class of citizens. After citing the Canadian Charter of Rights and the United Nations declaration on Human Rights, Buterman suggested the Alberta government’s treatment of transgendered people does not fit in with traditional notions of Canadian citizenship.

“I’m terribly fearful about the types of things that can go with the unilateral declaration that one class of people is less than another class of people,” Buterman said.

Gender reassignment surgery costs run in the tens of thousands of dollars and are still quite rare in Alberta. The province was one of the first in the nation to pay for sex change operations, and was considered a ‘Mecca for transgendered people’ for some time, Buterman said. On top of the financial burden, there are other administrative stresses, he said. There are also dangers of forcing the diagnosis underground, forcing some to take matters into their own hands.

Buterman describes the sex change process as a ‘bureaucratic nightmare,’ which has resulted in long battles to change birth certificates, drivers licences and other forms of identification. He’s also had difficulty applying for welfare because of his condition.

“I’m starting to learn about being dehumanized,” Buterman said.

Buterman spoke of the problem of having his medical condition ‘outed’ any time he has to produce identification.

“Having one’s personal medical condition outed is hardly a tolerable situation,” he said.

On a more sinister side, he noted the existence of ‘trans-phobia’ which ranges from job loss to violence and even death. More transgendered individuals are being discovered as victims of crime, he said, which is disturbing, but also shows less of a need to cover up gender identity.

Buterman is no stranger to adversary. He was recently fired by the school board for his decision to change his gender from female to male. He’s applied to other school boards, but has heard nothing to this point, and still says he’d return to his former job in a heartbeat. In Morinville, he was working for a Catholic school, which was also considered a public school.

While Buterman has yet to undergo the transition surgery, he is currently on hormone treatment and living as a male, which is part of the procedure.

rowing up, he was diagnosed with lupus and later contracted breast cancer. He is divorced, and has two children.

Yet despite the adversary, Buterman remains optimistic change is possible, as the stigma against transgendered people continues to drop.