When Alex Blum started his career in pediatric medicine he had no idea that it would lead him to standing on a street corner across from Madison Square Garden, championing for health care reform.

Dr. Alex Blum protesting for health care reform. Photo: Ashley Harris

Blum and others gathered on the corner of 32nd Street and Seventh Avenue on Tuesday to protest UnitedHealthcare’s practices and customer service. The Service Employees International Union organized the protest in conjunction with Moveon.org as part of a 150-city nationwide stance against the current state of health care. The timing of the rally was no coincidence. It comes on the heels of proposed health care legislation by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. Complaints of poor customer service and coverage denials have been lobbied at the company.

Years of dealing with insurance company red tape left Blum discouraged that the people he set out to help would ever really receive the care they needed. Like the 12-year-old patient he saw last year. When the boy arrived to Blum he had suffered a major seizure. It wasn’t the first one. The mother told Blum that after her son’s first seizure at the age of 7, the doctor recommended her to brain and blood specialists, but neither was covered on her insurance.

“At first I couldn’t help but be angry with the mother for her choices,” he said. “But then I realized something has to be done about our broken health care system.”

Hector I. Figueroa, the secretary-treasurer of 32BJ SEIU, said, “Our turnout today was great because it’s about time that the voices of everyday citizens be heard.”

Figueroa estimates that more than 500 people showed up for the mostly peaceful protest. When satirical street theater group the Billionaires for Health Care tried to form a human chain to stop a SEIU delegation from walking over and giving a list of demands to UnitedHealthcare’s offices just a few feet away, they were escorted away. But, a media relations manager for the industry giant did briefly speak with an SEIU organizer and then returned to his office.

Repeated calls to UnitedHealthcare media relations were not returned.

Protesters out on the lines all had their own story. Therese R. Revesz, known as Te’ by the other protesters, saw her insurance premiums rise from $6,100 to $8,200 in the course of a year. Her insurer, The Entertainment industry Trust, increased rates by 35 percent.

“I’m over 60 and it’s difficult to pay for my expenses and needs with these premiums,” said the Manhattan native. “And I’m in relatively good health.”

Other protesters were far more colorful. Laurie Wen, a 38-year-old HealthCare-NOW! volunteer, walked around with a ratty hospital gown and black fuzzy slippers. The gown opened in the back to a large, pink, plastic rear end with a sign that said, “Make sure you have your back covered.”

Some attendees of the rally see health care as a state issue and not an Obama issue.

“There is no Obama health care plan,” said Susan Spedalle, a 51-year-old volunteer with MoveOn.org. “Senators and Congress will create it. He just signs it or vetoes it. If we want real reform we need to hold our officials’ feet to the fire.”

That’s what Sally Kohn, 32, senior campaign strategist for the Center for Community Change, thinks is happening.

“The conversation in the national media is about the twist and turns of the Washington debate,” she said. “What we’re seeing here is a real grassroots movement to make change happen.”

Blum agrees.

“It’s going to take more doctors like me getting out here and spreading the word for these companies to see that change has to be made,” he said.

The ethnic patchwork of Queens promises residents a society celebrating their diversity. For Leslie Mora and Carmella Etienne, both transgender women who were viciously attacked in recent weeks, that promise has soured.

Community activists and rally participants took turns denouncing the vicious attacks on transgender women.

“It sends a message to transgender New Yorkers that they should be scared to walk the streets,” said Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund and Mora’s legal counsel.

Mora was beaten with a belt buckle by two men near Roosevelt Avenue and 72nd Street in Jackson Heights on June 19, and Etienne was pelted with rocks and beer bottles in St. Albans on July 8.

The two incidents prompted a rally outside the Jackson Heights post office on July 26 to raise awareness about violence against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Residents and activists believe that urgent action is needed at the legislative level to avoid future occurrences of hate crimes in the neighborhood.

“One transgender person being attacked is a problem, and when two get attacked in two weeks, it is a serious problem,” said Melissa Sklarz, a transgender rights activist and one of the organizers of the rally.

According to a July 1 news release by the New York City Anti-Violence Project, the overall number of assaults in the city decreased by 12% from 2007 to 2008, but the number of bias-related murders increased 67% during the same period.

The status of the case against Mora’s attackers was a key point of discussion at the rally, which was attended by about 30 people. While hate crime charges have been brought against Etienne’s attackers, the Queens County district attorney’s office has brought the lesser charge of a felony assault against the two men charged with the attack on Mora, a decision Silverman opposes.

Mora’s assailants used several homophobic slurs during the attack and clearly believed she was gay, according to Silverman.

“While Ms. Mora is transgender, the evidence makes it clear that her assailants believed she was gay and attacked her because of that,” wrote Silverman in a letter dated June 29, to Paul Schraeter, senior assistant district attorney for Queens County, adding that this was sufficient to justify hate crime charges.

The district attorney’s office declined to comment on the case, but in a written statement said that they would reexamine the evidence against Mora’s attackers.

Current New York state law affords protection from hate-motivated violence based on race, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation and other factors, but none that include the transgender population.

A key piece of legislation, the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, was passed by the New York Assembly in April, but has not yet come up for a vote in the state Senate. The bill would provide anti-discrimination protections on the basis of gender identity and expression, extending current laws to protect transgender New Yorkers.

Assemblyman Micah Z. Kellner, who represents the 65th District and is a staunch supporter of gay rights, said that lawmakers had failed their constituents. “We’ve sanctioned hate. We’ve said it’s okay to discriminate against a person because of their gender identity and their gender expression and that is not right,” he said.

Other activists feel that regardless of pending legislation, the real change must come from within the community.

Robert Pinter, a community activist, believes that while the police were to be commended for the prompt arrests of Mora’s and Etienne’s assailants, they bore some responsibility for how transgender women were perceived by residents.

“I’ve seen how transgender women are subject to humiliation at the hands of the NYPD,” he said, adding, “This kind of police misconduct sends a legitimizing message to hate-filled perpetrators like those who attacked Carmella and Leslie and it must end.”

Brendan Fay, another rally organizer, closed the rally by pointing out that the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Queens had a long history of standing together.

“That’s the beautiful thing about our community–we always remember and never forget.”