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.
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 for the
Massachusetts Department of Correction to pay for
sex-change surgery, which can cost from $10,000 to
$20,000. After two lawsuits and two trials, the decision now
rests with a federal judge.
Kosilek's case has become fodder for radio talk
shows, often provoking outrage among callers on the
topic of whether the state should pay for a convicted
murderer's sex-change operation. The case is also being
closely watched by attorneys and advocates across the
country who say Kosilek is an example of the poor
treatment transgender inmates receive in prison.
Courts in several other states have ordered
prison systems to allow transgender inmates to receive
psychotherapy and in some cases hormone shots. But no
inmate in the country has ever succeeded in getting a court
to order a sex-change operation, according to advocates.
"If people are not treated, they suffer
tremendously," said Shannon Minter, a board member of
the Transgender Law and Policy Institute. "It's just
as cruel to withhold treatment for gender-identity
disorder as it is to withhold treatment for any other
medical issue."
In Massachusetts, four of the 12 inmates
diagnosed with gender-identity disorder are receiving
hormone shots, including Kosilek. Prison officials
also allowed Kosilek to receive laser hair removal, female
undergarments, and some makeup.
Some states allow inmates to continue hormone
treatments if they are already on hormones when they
begin their sentences, but most do not allow inmates
to initiate hormone therapy while in prison. Many states do
not have any written policy for the treatment of transgender
inmates, said Cole Thaler, a transgender rights
attorney for Lambda Legal.
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 constitutional prohibition
against cruel and unusual punishment.
"It's the most absurd thing I've ever heard of,"
said Wisconsin state lawmaker Mark Gundrum, who helped
write a state law that bars the Department of
Correction from using tax dollars for hormone therapy or
sex-reassignment surgery.
He said the framers of the Constitution "were
envisioning preventing people from being burned in oil
or burned at the stake," not simply refusing to use
taxpayer dollars for inmate sex changes or breast implants.
The law 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.
Colorado officials say that providing a
sex-change operation for Grey or any of the other two
dozen transgender inmates in the state's prisons would
create security concerns. James Michaud, chief of mental
health for the Colorado prison system, said he does
not believe sex-change operations are medically necessary.
"There are certainly people who are transgender
who want surgery and who want to appear different, but
I don't think that makes it medically necessary," he
said. (AP)