73 year old transsexual Vicki Harvey has lashed out at the public after being denied her sex change surgery, blaming "bigoted correspondents" to the Taranaki Daily News using her case as a "political weapon". If approved as a suitable candidate for sex change surgery, her $30,000 operation would have been funded by the public health system. After assessment, she has been declined public funded surgery. Earlier this month Harvey made international news as a human interest story, where she praised her community and announced the government would fund her surgery. The story, however, became the subject for fierce political debate and criticism of the government. Opposition parties used her case as an example of the Labour government funding "unjustified" and "frivolous" procedures. National Party spokesman Paul Hutchison announced "Most New Zealanders will be appalled that scarce health dollars are being spent on sex change operations while people line up for hip, hernia and gall bladder surgery." Now Vicki Harvey has written to the Taranaki Daily News who originally ran her story, saying "I can only hope that you and your bigoted correspondents have not driven some young persons who are struggling to accept themselves to attempt to end their lives on account of your using what I was lead to believe to be a human interest item as a political weapon."
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Thursday, 1st September 2005 - 12:00pm