The Virgin and the Transsexual
News report by PFC Staff
November 11th, 1996
A Press For Change activist, working on behalf of the UK’s Parliamentary Forum on Transsexualism, has this week succeeded in persuading life insurer Virgin Direct Life Limited to issue her with a policy in her reassigned gender.
So far as we know, this is an industry first !
Life Insurance cover has always been one of those areas where a transsexual woman or man finds themselves having to deal with the thorny question of their legal status. In some cases, health and life insurers in the UK have preferred not to take a risk on the applicant at all. At the very least, the transsexual woman or man has had to settle for a policy that clearly identifies them as a member of their natal sex … so that it becomes an obvious and embarrassing issue that’s impossible to conceal every time they ever have dealings with the company in the future … or if they wish to use the policy to take out a mortgage. No other disclosable medical details are treated by insurers in a way that is displayed so obviously and incongruously on the policy documents, for all to see. But then transsexual people are quite used to being singled out.
It’s odd too. For in surgical terms a transsexual’s gender re-assignment treatment has a lot in common with having a hysterectomy or a cancerous testicle removed. Moreover, transsexual people are not going to have any childbirth complications. Gender reassigned people of either sex won’t have a hysterectomy. Come to that, the oestrogen therapy prescribed to transsexual women prevents the possibility of osteoporosis too (which is why it’s prescribed) and means they’re very unlikely to have prostate problems either ! Roll in the fact that many transsexuals have a far more celibate lifestyle than the average citizen and you might almost think a transsexual woman should wake up from surgery to find the salesmen standing around her bed waving policies to sign !
Of course, the power of prejudice is very strong … but then, as we know in this campaign, the only effective antidote for ignorance is education … and that’s our forté !
Our colleague complained. Not just that, she had her facts with her too … in the form of the medical viewpoint summary recently published by the Parliamentary Forum on Transsexuality. Following patient discussion, Virgin eventually confirmed that they would treat her correctly as a woman on the policy they issued. Her case was that transsexualism should be viewed in the same light as other intersex conditions and that while it would be appropriate to take into account the medication and surgery received to correct the condition, there was no reason to issue a policy in her natally-identified, incorrect gender.
Not content with that, after receiving her policy, the activist wrote again to Virgin Life’s General Manager, Mr Creese, asking if Virgin would be willing to extend the same approach to other people in the UK’s transsexual community and, as you’ll see from the letter reproduced below, they said they would.
Patient and reasoned argument has therefore created a precedent which we hope other insurers will now be prepared to follow. It will also add to the case of another Press for Change activist preparing soon to challenge her personal pension providers and the Inland Revenue over documents that publicly brand her as a male … and others battling with private health insurers.
We’d like to congratulate Virgin for their good sense, of course … and it goes without saying that we’re sure many readers will probably think about using Virgin Life in preference for their own financial service needs … or will now be emboldened to seek similar treatment from other insurers. With upwards of 10,000 potential customers, and the considerable commissions involved in signing up life policies it is, let’s face it, a shrewd move on Virgin’s part.
If you should decide to use Virgin Life for personal financial services though then it would help us enormously if you could let us know. We can then count up the number of people who have gone to Virgin and use that to bring pressure on other insurers to provide similar treatment. The same applies if you win similar agreement from another company yourself.
Who knows? Before we know it we’ll maybe have a page of links to transsexual-friendly insurers !
Here’s the text of the letter anyway …
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Virgin Direct Life Ltd Dear (name elided) Thank you for your letter to Annette Pechey dated 30th October 1996. I was pleased to hear that you have proceeded with your policy and that it is now underway. With regard to the request from the Parliamentary Forum on Transsexualism, I am happy to confirm that we will treat other people who approach us consistently with the way we treated you. However, I think that it is important that I make the following points. Virgin Direct follow a policy of not discriminating negatively or indeed positively against any group of individuals - we believe in treating each person as an individual. In terms of providing insurance cover, this individual treatment extends to the calculation of a unique premium for each customer, based on their own personal circumstances. Whilst clearly we are not averse to people being told of how we treat our customers, we do feel it is important that it is made completely clear that they will be dealt with based on their own, individual, circumstances and not in a certain way because they are of a particular group. Looking to your own case, can I make it clear that whilst we certainly recognised your female gender in terms of the base rates, your premium does include an allowance for the higher risk resulting from the surgery you have had and the medication you are taking. I can confirm, however, that should we be contacted in the future by other men and women who have completed the treatment for transsexualism, we will recognise them as being in their post-operative gender, and the premium we quote will be calculated accordingly. The base premium will, however, be modified appropriately for their personal circumstances and lifestyle, including allowance for the surgery they have had and any medication they are taking. In terms of the information we will need from applicants for our life insurance, again, this will be based on each individual’s circumstances. We are therefore not able to detail a standard requirement.. However, for people who have changed their name we will always require a copy of the deed poll. I hope that the above clarifies our position. Thank you once again for choosing to be business with Virgin Direct. Yours sincerely Neville Creese |