It's going to cost taxpayers how much?
"Challenges to inmates’ gender cases costly to Bay State; Legal bills could total $2 million" by Milton J. Valencia | Globe Staff, December 31, 2012
The state Department of Correction may face legal bills of roughly $2 million for unsuccessfully challenging what three prisoners say is their right to treatment for gender disorders.
The most high-profile of the cases is that of Michelle Kosilek, the convicted murderer who successfully sued for a sex change operation after doctors found it was the only appropriate treatment for a severe case of gender identity disorder. A judge earlier this month said he will order the state to pay $700,000 in legal fees to the inmate’s legal team.
See: Kosilek’s lawyers to be paid $700,000
But the state also raised challenges in at least two other similar cases — that of inmates
Sandy Battista and Ketheena Soneeya — losing both. If the inmates’ lawyers win the legal fees they are seeking, it could cost taxpayers an additional $1 million or more.
This at a time of austerity.
“The fact that they’re fighting these seems absurd,” said Neal E. Minahan, a lawyer with McDermott Will & Emery, who won a lawsuit forcing the state to provide hormone treatments for Battista, a convicted rapist who was born David Megarry....
Well, let it never be said that the state of Massachusetts wasn't good at wasting money.
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I'm all for tolerance and individuality, folks, but thi$ is getting out of hand.
Related: Relative of woman killed by Michelle Kosilek blasts judge for making state pay for sex-change operation
Prison chief must make oath in sex-change case
As long as you keep him, 'er, her in prison.
"Hospital signals interest in Kosilek surgery" by John R. Ellement | Globe Staff, March 05, 2013
One Massachusetts hospital has signaled an interest in hosting sex reassignment surgery for convicted killer Michelle L. Kosilek, but the state must still find a doctor from outside Massachusetts willing to get a license and malpractice insurance before the surgery can take place here, according to court records....
Kosilek was born Robert Kosilek. As a man, he strangled his wife, Cheryl, in Mansfield in 1990 and dumped her body in a car at the Emerald Square Mall in North Attleborough. Kosilek fled to New York State before he was arrested.
Kosilek was convicted of first-degree murder in January 1993 and is serving a life sentence. The Globe refers to Kosilek as a woman because that is her preferred gender.
Not that I'm trying to be insensitive; however, why is such sensitivity being shown a murderer? I guess it's all who you are and what agenda you represent.
The Patrick administration is appealing US District Court Judge Mark Wolf’s ruling. While that is pending, Wolf has put Kosilek’s surgery on hold....
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I don't think I'll be back to check on this story.
UPDATE: Ruling on Mass. inmate’s sex change is fought
Also see:
"Boston, transgender woman settle lawsuit; Officers’ actions under scrutiny" by Maria Cramer | Globe Staff, February 05, 2013
The city of Boston has agreed to pay a transgender woman $20,000 in exchange for dropping her suit against the officers who arrested her on disorderly conduct at a homeless shelter, in a case that highlights the department’s absence of written policies for dealing with transgender people....
Cheryl Fiandaca, spokeswoman for the Boston police, declined to comment on the lawsuit, but she said top commanders have been meeting with leaders in the transgender community about such issues.
“Currently, we are working with the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition to develop new policies to deal with various situations and issues of importance that could arise with the police and the community,” she said.
Last Friday, the Boston Public Health Commission, which runs the Woods Mullen Shelter where Wernikoff was arrested, agreed to pay her an additional $10,000. Staff members at the shelter, who called police that day, were retrained after the incident, said commission spokesman Nick Martin....
Wernikoff’s lawyer, Howard Friedman, a well-known civil rights attorney, pointed to departments in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, which make clear in their rules and regulations that officers are to address a transgender person by their preferred name and use appropriate personal pronouns....
Wernikoff, whose birth name is Bruce Wernikoff and who began identifying as a woman when she was in her mid-50s, had been staying at the shelter for about a year. She said she had nowhere else to go after she left her uncle’s home, where she felt unwelcome by relatives uncomfortable with her gender identity.
Wernikoff was in a bathroom stall when a counselor, Margaretta Collins, came into the bathroom and told her she could not be there when other women were present.
Collins said in an interview that her supervisor told her that transgender people at the shelter were supposed to use another bathroom on the floor.
“For whatever reason, she chose to use the female’s bathroom and the females complained,” said Collins, who left her job about a month ago for health reasons.
The Boston Public Health Commission’s policy stipulates that transgender women may use the women’s restroom and showers....
That's why I've always felt squeamish about the issue, but if you gotta go....
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UPDATE: Schools get guidelines on transgender students
That's just confusing the kids more.
