(Reuters) – A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Massachusetts officials to pay for a convicted murderer’s sex change operation, ruling that the state had violated the inmate’s constitutional rights in denying the procedure.
In a 126-page order issued in Boston, U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf found in favor of Michelle Kosilek, who sued the Massachusetts Department of Correction 12 years ago to force it to provide him the surgery while imprisoned. Kosilek, according to court records, has suffered from gender identity disorder since he was a small child. He married a counselor he met while in drug rehabilitation, but murdered her in 1990 after she caught him wearing her clothes.
He was convicted in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In a world gone mad…….
We are pretty sure now there’s not a loose screw on that guy’s head.
On the other hand, “progressive” politicians are so nuts…
Hey, if he wants a sex change operation, I know people who would gladly pay for the fun of giving it to him.
Of course he wouldn’t be getting anesthetic or anything like clean sheets or shiny new surgical instruments.
(And pedro progressive just means someone who is for progress. I guess you‘re for staying in the eighteenth century, [which sounds more nuts to me seeing as we're now in the twentieth century, {aka the Century of the Fruit Bat.}])
uhm you seem to be behind the times
thank you and welcome to the twenty-first century.
You know some weird people.
No, that’s the real meaning of progressive. I was referring to the meaning self-proclaimed “progressive” have given to the word
Didn’t California just ban this sort of therapy?
Spot on. It is schizophrenic society where PC decides whether “gender choice” is immutable or not.
Science should be clear: if your mental disorder causes you to want to mutilate yourself, solution must never be to help along with mutilation. Gender is assigned by DNA code. If you have Y chromosome you are male, immutable by any mental choice or operation (or genetic appearance).
And if you’ve got YYX chromosomes, or defective genes, (and we define defective of course, every fifteen years or so,) or anything else which signals aberrant behavior, we get to nail your ass.
You sound like a taliban.
DNA is not deterministic, it merely sets operational limits. (You’ll never look good in a long slinky diaphanous sheath dress because you’ll only ever grow to be a four feet tall hairy dwarf, of any gender.
)
The problem with any case involving a department of government, is that government really can never lose. If I get sued and lose for wronging a person, the judgement comes out of my pocket. When government gets sued and loses for wronging a person, again, the judgement comes out of my pocket!
I was curious who this Judge Wolf was. I guess I expected him to have been appointed by Carter or Clinton, the usual sources for wacko lefty federal judges, but he was appointed by Reagan.
I guess the problem isn’t Democrats or Republicans, its lawyers (and judges).
To get confirmed, a federal judge for a court in Massachusetts would have to be approved by both Senators from his home state.
First you put the lotion on?
That is a slippery slope.
I am a democrat and I say this is BS, murderers get nothing.
So does he say in the men’s prison or does he get transferred to the women’s prison? The last thing I would want to be is the only woman in a man’s prison. It’s genius if you get moved to a woman’s prison. There is so much more to the story I want to know.
Austin my boy. Let me esplain ’bout sex change surgery….
Judge is a Reagan appointee.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and the thing will dye on the operating table.
You want him to change colors too?
America is a wonderful country.
Where else can a strong, tall, strapping black male grow up to be a little white girl? (That you, Chris Rock for that Michael Jackson joke.)
Touche.
Wolf did not explicitly set a timetable for Kosilek’s surgery, saying it was up to the state to determine who should perform the operation and in which facility.
Surgery to be performed by his murdered wife’s family in a Home Depot parking lot using an assortment of weed wackers.
I am profoundly embarrassed to be from Massachusetts. This case is just one more reason why.
Willie Horton turned the 1988 election. Obama should pin this against Romney and the Reagan judge.
So what if Reagan approved him? I frankly don’t care if Jesus himself approved him, and then attached a halo to his head, decreeing “thou can do no wrong verdict”
Its a bad decision, and this is a bad judge.
More proof that we need loser pays laws in this country.
Apparently the moral of the story is, if you want something and cannot pay for it go murder someone, sue the state, and have the state pay for what you want.
I think that is mostly correct with the emPHAsis in the wrong place. If the counseling/sex change services had been available thru our healthcare system, the crime most likely would have been avoided. Its a crap shoot though. Just another cost of our bloated inefficient for profit health care system.
I posted somewhere that Mass could do as it wishes, but this turns out to be a Federal civil rights case probably egged on by the liberal in prison social service department. As usual– a mix.
I’m guessing here that there are hundreds if not thousands of trapped wrongly gendered persons currently in prison. You know prison: America’s answer to mental health services.
We could do so much better on just about every issue there is ====== at half the cost. Values voters are against it though so we squander our potential as an even better society.
Progressive premises taken to their logical conclusion. I’m shocked you libs aren’t demanding a special tax be imposed on society to pay for these surgeries…after all, Dems want to allow felons vote…so these, like illegal immigrants, are actually undocumented Democrats.
And I am convinced all Progressives shouting “No” to God at the Convention, would do him.
After all, “you are the change.” -Obama
We need a special tax to allow these poor souls a chance to be who they are.
You’re consistent….a loon, but consistent.
Those who dislike the idea of public funding sex changes….might be Republicans and not know it
Clearly they harbor conservative ideas, and yet still consider themselves Democrats.
That comes from confusing today’s Democrat party, with the party of JFK….The radical left took over in the 90′s, its a different party now.
If you believe in ???? you are a conservative
That its absurd taxpayers pay for the sex change of anyone, in or out of prison.
Value of the individual, in the sanctity of individual sovereignty
The individual has God given natural and inalienable rights, any individual regardless of race.
Respect for the individual, his life and his property
If you’re against freeloading and believe all able should carry their own weight
If you believe in family and faith
If you believe the law applies to everyone and all races deserve justice and impartial hearing of grievances and all must obey the same laws equally
If you believe welfare is a hand up, not an entitlement way of life
If you embrace the Declaration of Independence and Constitution
If you have sole loyalty to the USA
If you believe a centralized Federal Government of concentrated power is a danger to all of us, our liberties
If you believe parents have the right to send their own children to better schools regardless where they live or who they are
If you believe in legal immigration and not illegal immigration
If you believe the money you make is yours and does not belong to the Government
If you believe Government shouldn’t pander to any group but treat all citizens fairly and equally.
If you believe your home is your castle, your property yours and does not belong to the community
If you believe your personal life is your business and not that of the Government’s
Well, you fail the test too. I’m as Conservative as you are.
For instance, you’re a Christian Taliban and support the government pandering to the Christian Taliban Group. The Taliban also does not treat gays, who are citizens, equally.
Therefore, you’re a liar (lying is a sin, too). You are NOT conservative. ..and you will to live in a lake of fire because you’re a liar and God hates liars.
If you believe Government shouldn’t pander to any group but treat all citizens fairly and equally.
The Christian Taliban perceives that statement to apply to them, not everyone.
“Pander to any group” is open to a lot of interpretation, depending on the point of reference.
You’re just an idiot Dullass. And no, taxes are not supposed to pay for people’s self-confusion or delusion.
The fallacy in your argument is confusing Apples as Oranges…while religions (Apples) are tax free, and therefore its NOT pandering Christianity be also…its just being treated equally as everyone else in the category….
It not the same with the sexual preference….humans are required to work and pay their own bills and taxes…they don’t get free medical services from the government, therefore its not right to pander to a select sub group of humans who by their own choice, want cosmetic surgery.
If they get cosmetic surgery, everyone should. You could begin with a brain transplant, to stop that unsightly runoff coming out of your ears…being such a drip…
And filling in the void would help with that irritating sea shell like “ocean noise” whenever wind is passing over your ears….
You should jump into this guy’s bandwagon. Maybe you’ll find a judges that pities you and you get your operation free
What about the people in prison who are trapped in the body of the wrong species? I bet there are plenty of snakes, rats, dogs, cats birds and insects locked up in the system. Not to mention the wolves and sheep.
I think that judge has done the right thing. Why does everyone go crazy over this? If you lock someone up, you become responsable for their well being also. Looking at the responses (“In a world gone mad…….” is one of them) many obviously think it is ok to treat them as animals right away also then. That tells more about your own state of mind then about that judge ruling in favour of this guy. These weird reactions may also explain why many americans have no problems with torture in Guantanamo Bay.