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by Diane Dimond
I unequivocally oppose a recent pro-prisoner court order that you may find positively
shocking. I know I did.
The prisoner at the center of the controversy is MichelleKosilek. But up until 1993, this person was known as Robert Kosilek. In 1990,
Robert’s wife, Cheryl, already distressed over his drinking came home to find
him dressed up in her clothes. A fight ensued and the trial court found Robert
was guilty of strangling Cheryl with a wire and abandoning her naked body in
the family car outside a local mall.
Just before Kosilek went on trial for Cheryl’s murder in
1993, he declared he was a woman trapped in a man’s body and legally changed his
name to Michelle. Kosilek appeared in court with long luxurious hair and
wearing eye makeup, rouge, women’s glasses, slim cut jeans and a set of
dangling circle earrings. Despite self-identifying as a female, upon
conviction, Kosilek was sentenced to an all-male prison in Norfolk,
Massachusetts to serve life in prison without parole.
Over the years, Kosilek’s attorneys have repeatedly filed
motions asking the court to order sex-reassignment surgery for the convicted
murderer. In 2002, after specialists testified Kosilek did, indeed, suffer from
severe gender identity disorder the court allowed Kosilek to begin receiving taxpayer
funded psychotherapy, female hormone injections, laser hair removal and access
to women’s underwear and make-up. All of that wasn’t enough for Kosilek’s peace
of mind, however. Court documents revealed s/he attempted self-castration
and twice attempted suicide in prison.
Now, let’s pause here so I can be clear. I have no doubt
that gender identity disorder exists and that it can be psychological hell for
those who are born this way. But there are lots of people on the outside
struggling with Kosilek’s problem, unable to come up with the money for a
gender reassignment operation. Do we afford convicted killers health care
rights that law abiding citizens don’t have? The answer is yes, according to a
recent decision from U.S. District Court Judge Mark Wolf.
“It may seem strange that in the United States citizens do
not generally have a constitutional right to adequate medical care, but the
Eighth Amendment promises prisoners such care,” Judge Wolf wrote in ruling that
the state of Massachusetts must pay for the prisoner’s sex-change operation. To
do otherwise, Wolf ruled, would constitution cruel and unusual punishment.
Now, stop and think about this a minute. Here is a person
who lives in the general population of an all – male prison. It may be one
thing for him to dress up like the character Klinger from the old M*A*S*H* TV
series but it might be something altogether more dangerous for Kosilek to
actually become transgendered and think nothing will change within his
testosterone driven prison community. Judge Wolf heard testimony from prison
officials about the unique security problems Kosilek’s case would present but
he dismissed the argument. As it stands now Kosilek gets his free operation but
the state could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court which would delay things.
Other states have grappled with similar federal cases filed
by prisoners wanting a sex change operation but I couldn’t find one where a
judge actually ordered taxpayer funded surgery.
Judge Wolf’s apparently groundbreaking decision seems so
shortsighted to me. He made it sound as if he had no choice in the matter, that
it was a “medical necessity” for this prisoner. It’s as if the judge forgot that the
state has already bent over backward to accommodate this prisoner’s numerous
wishes over the years.
I’m not the only one who is outraged by this. After the
ruling, U.S. Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts said Kosilek’s surgery would
be, “An outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars.” A niece of Cheryl Kosilek nearly
begged the state to quickly appeal the decision saying, “As far as I’m
concerned, he deserves nothing. If he wants to attempt suicide … let him.”
Judge Wolf’s written ruling didn’t address what would happen
to Kosilek after the operation. Would s/he be left to fend for her/himself in
the all-male population or be transferred to a women’s prison? What if Kosilek
decides he is unhappy with the results and wants further surgery? And, most
important, what signal does this send to all the other poor but law-abiding
souls who cannot afford the psychotherapy, the hormones, the gender
reassignment surgery? For the truly desperate it seems to be an invitation to
commit a really serious crime so they can advance their goal of changing sexes.
I can see providing a prisoner
a heart transplant or expensive cancer treatments so they don’t die. That, to
me, fits in the “medically necessary” category. But, to those Kosilek
sympathizers who declare granting this operation is humane – I asked them one
question: How humane was Robert Kosilek when he pulled that wire around his
wife’s neck and tugged on it until it nearly took her head off? He’s gotten
enough rewards for his murderous behavior.
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