An interesting thing to know about growing up under the Administration for Children's Services: If you are diagnosed with gender-identity disorder, your sex change operation will be courtesy of the city.
The Post reports that for the second time, a judge has ruled that the city should pay for the operation since Mariah Lopez was diagnosed with gender identity disorder. The city appealed, but Judge Sheldon Rand ruled in Lopez's favor yet again, saying that the ACS has to pay for all "necessary" medial treatment to its children, including a $20,000 sex change operation: "Mariah L. should be treated in order that she may go on with her life and be in a body which blends with the gender with which she identifies."
The case has been going for a few years, and Lopez, who is now 21, is very excited about the ruling. However, the city says it will appeal again, claiming that Lopez doesn't have steady work or housing and hasn't complied with psychotherapy. At any rate, we found Lopez's father's words touching. He told the Post, "She's my son-daughter, I love her. If it's in her blood to be a woman, so be it. I think if it helps other gay people, I'm all for it."
