SubscribeMurderer Sues For Taxpayer-Paid Sex Change
Now, for the softer side of the news, from the DNC's Associated Press:
This Jan. 15, 1993 image shows Robert J. Kosilek in Bristol County Superior Court in New Bedford, Mass., where Kosilek was on trial for the May 1990 murder of his wife. Kosilek, now known as Michelle, hopes a federal court will force the state to fund a sex-change operation for him.
Transgendered inmates push for state-funded sex-change surgery
8/19/2006
BOSTON (AP) — Wearing lipstick, a scooped-neck sweater and nearly waist-length hair, the witness cried while describing what it feels like to be a woman trapped inside a man's body.
"The greatest loss is the dying I do inside a little bit every day," said Michelle Kosilek, an inmate who is serving a life sentence for murder.
Michelle Kosilek was Robert Kosilek when he was convicted in the killing of his wife. In 1993, while in prison, he legally changed his name to Michelle. Since then, Kosilek has been fighting with prison officials to complete his transformation into a woman.
Kosilek, 57, wants the state Department of Correction to pay for a sex-change operation. After two lawsuits and two trials, the decision now rests with a federal court judge…
The case is also being closely watched by attorneys and advocates across the country who say Kosilek is an example of the poor treatment transgendered inmates receive in prison…
Inmates in several other states have sued prison officials for sex-change operations. Like Kosilek, they argued that gender identity disorder is a serious illness that can lead to severe anxiety, depression, suicide attempts and self-castration. They argue that treatment for their condition is a "medical necessity" and denying it would violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment…
The "Inmate Sex Change Prevention Act" was introduced after Wisconsin inmate Scott Konitzer filed a lawsuit seeking a sex-change operation. The law took effect in January, but is being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal.
In Colorado, inmate Christopher "Kitty" Grey, who is serving 16 years to life for molesting an 8-year-old girl, is suing the state to provide him with a gender specialist he hopes will determine that he needs a sex-change operation. The state Department of Corrections is already giving Grey female hormones.
"For all intents and purposes, I am a woman in a man's prison," Grey told the Denver Post in an interview earlier this year. "That's like putting a cat in a dog kennel," Grey said…
What a surprise to see that the ACLU is mixed up in this somewhere.