Mass. Prison Reviews Court's Transgender Ruling
by Tovia Smith
Morning Edition
September 6, 2012
http://www.npr.org/2012/09/06/160654718/mass-prison-reviews-courts-transgender-surgery-rulingRENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Prison officials in Massachusetts say they are still reviewing a federal court decision in Boston ordering them to provide sex-change surgery for a prison inmate. Critics are urging officials to appeal what they call an outrageous abuse of taxpayer funds. But as NPR's Tovia Smith reports, the decision this week reflects national trends of prisons treating gender identity disorder as a legitimate medical condition deserving treatment like any other.
TOVIA SMITH, BYLINE: Advocates are the first to concede the inmate's not the most sympathetic poster-child for transgender rights. Michelle Kosilek was still known as Robert when he was convicted of strangling his wife to death in 1990 and sentenced to life in prison. But even still, Mara Keisling, head of the National Center for Transgender Equality, says Kosilek is entitled to the surgery.
MARA KEISLING: Whether you like murderers or not - and I would say most of us don't - we cannot deny them medical care. It is against our Constitution.
