Transgendered Albertans, including Niqolai Gryphon top left, fill out their human-rights complaints outside the commission's Calgary office Wednesday. (CBC)

At least 23 Albertans filed human-rights complaints on Wednesday over the province's decision to drop funding for sex-change operations in last week's budget.

The province had funded a maximum of 20 gender reassignment surgeries [GRS] annually; the cut is expected to save the government about $700,000 a year.

Members of Alberta's transgendered community filed at least 12 complaints in Calgary and 11 in Edmonton, arguing that the sex-change surgeries are a matter of life and death.

"These people have felt from nearly day one that they are in the wrong body and that they're very unhappy and distressed," said psychologist Dr. Kevin Alderson, who argues GRS is medically necessary.

Mercedes Allen, a Calgary writer, was born a male and tried to live as one for nearly 35 years. "I reached that crisis point and started laying out the step to basically commit suicide," she said.

Allen began hormone therapy and got into the queue for gender reassignment surgery this summer. The operation can cost up to $80,000.

News of the province pulling funding has made it unclear whether Allen's surgery will go ahead.

"It felt crushing. It felt like a knot in the stomach, essentially," Allen said. "For a lot of people, GRS is the light at the end of the tunnel."

On Tuesday, the province said it will only pay for the 26 Albertans who already had their funding approved and another 20 who have started their hormonal drug therapy, but reiterated that the procedure will be delisted for new patients.

Alberta had most comprehensive coverage in country

"The province has backed us into a corner and forced us to fight for our rights," said Jordenne Prescott, who filed a complaint to the Alberta Human Rights Commission office in Calgary.

Jordenne Prescott said the provincial government has forced the transgendered community to fight for their rights. (CBC)

Prescott, who is married with four children, said it was a difficult decision to start hormone therapy to physically become a woman but feels the transition will save her life.

Until it delisted the surgery, Alberta had the most comprehensive coverage in the country. British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador provide partial coverage.

Last year, Ontario lost a human-rights challenge on the issue and announced its health plan would start paying for gender reassignment surgery again after a decade of not doing so.

Lindsay Blackett, Alberta's minister of Culture and Community Spirit who oversees the human rights commission, said that the Ontario precedent may not have much weight in his province.

"We have a slightly different process, and we have slightly different value systems and a way of thinking in Alberta, and since most of the people on our commission are from Alberta, they may look at it a little differently than Ontarians do."

High risk of depression, suicide

Alderson, who's based in Calgary, said international research shows gender reassignment surgery turns troubled patients — tormented by being born into the wrong bodies — into well-adjusted individuals.

"But prior to that surgery, their risk of depression and emotional problems and suicide is really, really high. And that scares me, as someone who works with people who are trying to get this transition happening," he said.

Niqolai Gryphon submitted an application to the province for GRS in February and is waiting to hear whether he made it into the queue in time.

"It's not just us, not just the people who are in the process right now that are impacted by this decision," Gryphon said.

April Friesen joined about two dozen people at the Calgary government office to support others who are waiting for sex-change operations.

"I've had my GRS and my girlfriend has not yet — she's in the queue — and this is throwing a great big huge wrench into our future plans and everybody else who are having to fight and are afraid to do so. Somebody has to stand up for them," Friesen said.

With files from Carolyn Dunn, Cameron MacIntosh, David Bell