Kosilek: Sex Change for Inmates

We now buy vaginas for inmates.

Robert Kosilek was convicted of murdering his wife in 1990.  Kosilek changed his name to Michelle in 1993.  Kosilek started hormone therapy in 2003.  Throughout his time in prison Kosilek has tried to sue for the ability to have sex reassignment surgery using the following argument:

"Everybody has the right to have their health care needs met, whether they are in prison or out on the streets," Kosilek said. "People in the prisons who have bad hearts, hips or knees have surgery to repair those things. My medical needs are no less important or more important than the person in the cell next to me."

On September 4th, U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ruled that Kosilek's constitutional rights were violated when Kosilek was denied gender reassignment surgery:

“It is unusual to treat a prisoner suffering severely from a gender identity disorder differently than the numerous inmates suffering from more familiar forms of mental illness.  It is not permissible for prison officials to do so just because the fact that a gender identity disorder is a major mental illness not understood by much of the public and the required treatment for it is unpopular.”

Massachusetts must now pay for Kosilek's gender reassignment surgery using taxpayer money.

Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown agree that this is a strange use of taxpayer dollars.  I guess the parties can agree on some things.

So, to summarize:

If you're poor, unemployed, and don't have health insurance you can die in a gutter from pneumonia.

If you murder your wife, the state will buy you a shiny new vagina.

Or, said another way:  Murders > Poor People

Go team.