On the recording, which was shared with The Times, it appears that the medical workers are discussing their feelings about transgender identity. It is difficult to discern how many people are talking, but the remarks are clear.
“Not that it’s not right.”
“It’s not.”
“It doesn’t make sense.”
“I don’t get any of it, I’m sorry.”
Then, one of the workers suggests that they simply don’t know enough.
“That’s the thing,” the voice says. “It’s hard to understand because you don’t see it every day; you’re not living it.”
At various points during the conversation, there are repeated mentions of something that had happened earlier, when Ms. Capasso arrived.
She had been asked to take a pregnancy test, a routine preoperative step for female patients. Even though she doesn’t have a uterus, she had offered to do whatever was easiest.
“I don’t want to go into the operating room with any bad vibe,” she later explained.
In the recording, the health care workers can be heard reassessing how Ms. Capasso’s medical records describe her. “It’s not supposed to just say ‘female,’” one can be heard saying. “It’s supposed to say ‘transgender female.’”
“It’s still wrong per se,” someone says.
Then, the conversation takes an unexpected turn. One health care worker announces that she will contact an administrator who works on improving care for L.G.B.T.Q. patients. “She’s, like, in charge of this trans stuff,” the worker says.
A phone call ensues. After explaining the situation — “they’re ordering pregnancy tests on the patient, too” — the medical worker explains that she has updated Ms. Capasso’s medical records, and wonders if that was the correct thing to do.
“So then we have to have it changed back to ‘female?’” the worker asks. “I was just trying to make things right.”
But then the worker seems to reconsider.
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