Barney Frank, Michelle Kosilek & Prisoner Sex Changes
Filed By Mercedes Allen | October 02, 2012 5:30 PM
http://www.bilerico.com/2012/10/barney_frank_michelle_kosilek_prisoner_sex_changes.phpor
http://dentedbluemercedes.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/michelle-kosilek-barney-frank-and-prisoner-sex-changes/If Barney Frank seriously wants to be an ally for trans people, the absolute first thing he should do is stop talking about anything at all to do with trans people.
To be fair, the media has a bad habit of considering him a superior authority on absolutely anyone who's genuinely trans and keeps asking him about our issues, regardless of how unhelpful trans people consider him to be. This time, it's Metro Weekly's Justin Snow who thinks the man who keeps supplying the far right with seeming s-BARNEY-FRANK-large.jpegpenis-predators-in-the-washrooms validation should be considered an authority on things trans.
Naturally, Barney Frank takes the side of those who think that incarcerated trans people should be denied medical treatment. He does so without thinking about how if one part of treatment for gender dysphoria is not considered medically necessary, then any of it (hormone therapy, etc) is inevitably called into question. He also does so regardless of any of the resulting consequences... such as maintaining the status quo of having trans-sexed women subject to institutionally-sanctioned rape by being housed with male prisoners, or else to solitary confinement for the duration of their sentences.
Barney Frank's only caveat is that he thinks that an incarcerated transsexual woman should be able to "present herself as a woman, and that should be honored by the prison system" - because that's apparently our only important issue. Way to be an ally.
