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Trans inmate asks US supreme court to allow sex-reassignment surgery
Source: Associated Press
Trans inmate asks US supreme court to allow sex-reassignment surgery
Associated Press in Boston
Monday 16 March 2015 21.18 GMT
Lawyers for a transgender inmate convicted of murder asked the US supreme court Monday to overturn a ruling denying her request for sex-reassignment surgery.
A federal judge ordered the Massachusetts Department of Correction to grant the surgery to Michelle Kosilek in 2012, finding that it was the “only adequate treatment” for Kosilek’s severe gender dysphoria, also known as gender-identity disorder. That ruling was overturned in December by the 1st US circuit court of appeals.
Lawyers with Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders told the Associated Press they asked the supreme court to grant a hearing or to reverse the ruling by the appeals court. They argue that the appeals court did not find “clear error” in the judge’s ruling granting the surgery and therefore had no legal basis to overturn it.
Kosilek, born Robert Kosilek, is serving a life sentence for killing spouse Cheryl McCaul in 1990.
Now 65, Kosilek has fought to get the surgery for two decades. In 2002, judge Mark Wolf found that the treatment Kosilek was receiving in prison was inadequate, but stopped short of ordering the surgery, finding that the Department of Correction had not violated her eighth amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment. After that, prison officials began to provide hormone treatments, electrolysis to remove facial hair, female clothing and personal items.
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Associated Press in Boston
Monday 16 March 2015 21.18 GMT
Lawyers for a transgender inmate convicted of murder asked the US supreme court Monday to overturn a ruling denying her request for sex-reassignment surgery.
A federal judge ordered the Massachusetts Department of Correction to grant the surgery to Michelle Kosilek in 2012, finding that it was the “only adequate treatment” for Kosilek’s severe gender dysphoria, also known as gender-identity disorder. That ruling was overturned in December by the 1st US circuit court of appeals.
Lawyers with Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders told the Associated Press they asked the supreme court to grant a hearing or to reverse the ruling by the appeals court. They argue that the appeals court did not find “clear error” in the judge’s ruling granting the surgery and therefore had no legal basis to overturn it.
Kosilek, born Robert Kosilek, is serving a life sentence for killing spouse Cheryl McCaul in 1990.
Now 65, Kosilek has fought to get the surgery for two decades. In 2002, judge Mark Wolf found that the treatment Kosilek was receiving in prison was inadequate, but stopped short of ordering the surgery, finding that the Department of Correction had not violated her eighth amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment. After that, prison officials began to provide hormone treatments, electrolysis to remove facial hair, female clothing and personal items.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/16/prison-inmate-supreme-court-ruling-sex-resassignment-surgery
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]Ideally, the prison system shouldn't ever have to deal with these sorts of things as they should have been taken by US healthcare system.
But we don't live in an ideal world and now this woman has to fight a legal nightmare to get the treatment she needs 
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