Transgender Wife Killer Wants Taxpayer to Pay for Change from Bull to Cow

A convict serving a life sentence in a Massachusetts prison for strangling her wife after she spilled hot tea on her pee pee, has tied up the Boston federal court for over a year claiming taxpayers should pay for a sex change operation.

Michelle Kosilek, formerly Robert J. Kosilek, 58, has sued the Massachusetts Correction Department twice, claiming they are violating her Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment. Her assertion is that it is cruel and unusual punishment to refuse to allow her to go under the knife at the state's expense.

According to The Associated Press, the state Correction Department and its outside health care provider have spent over $52,000 dollars to obtain experts to testify against allowing the procedure that would cost about $20,000. They claim the surgery would likely lead to a security problem and make Kosilek a popular target for sexual assault.

Advocates are fighting just as passionately, claiming sex-change surgery deserves the same consideration as treatment for diabetes or high blood pressure. According to The AP, Cole Thaler, an attorney with Lambda Legal, a pro gay and transgender-rights group said, "The duty belongs to the prison to figure out how to fulfill its constitutional obligations to both provide adequate medical care and provide a fundamental security for all inmates."

There are reportedly numerous prisoners throughout the U.S. with transgender identity issues who are watching the case closely. Many have sued in other states, but none have yet convinced a judge to rule that the taxpayer should pay for these procedures. A win by Kosilek could set a precedent that some think is ridiculous.

Republican state Senator Scott Brown, who made an unsuccessful attempt to introduce a bill banning sex change operations for inmates, says the whole issue doesn't make much sense. "They are prisoners. They're there because they've broken the law," Brown said. He also points out that law abiding people desiring a similar procedure have to save up or get it approved by insurance companies that usually consider it as elective surgery. Prisoners shouldn't be allowed to get it for nothing, he added.

In a 2002 lawsuit a U.S. District Judge ruled that Kosilek was entitled to treatment for gender identity disorder, but not the surgery. That treatment includes hormone treatments, laser hair removal and psychotherapy and it is being paid for by taxpayers. In 2005, Kosilek filed the second suit claiming the treatment awarded in the first lawsuit is not doing enough to ease the anxiety and depression that has twice caused her to attempt suicide.

"I would not want to continue existing like this," She testified. "The greatest loss is the dying I do inside a little bit every day." Kosilek has also been given some access to female undergarments and makeup. "Just the hormones and the makeup do not get rid of my suffering," Kosilek said.

(This case reminds me of a local Sheriff's Department Captain addressing the County Commission about dental care for inmates. When one Commissioner asked him what it cost for an inmate to have a cavity filled, he seriously replied without missing a beat, "Ma'am, we don't fix their teeth, we pull 'em.")