The big news about transpeople is not something which is likely to help us win friends and influence people. On the other hand, the headlines are of some interest. Transgender-inmate ruling is movement’s latest win says the AP’s Megahn Barr.
So I guess we have won recognition as a “movement”. On the other hand Michelle Kosilek is not going to win us any friends. Federal Judge Mark Wolf has ordered a state-funded gender reassignment surgery for Kosilek, who during her transition in 1990 murdered her wife, Cheryl McCaul. He strangled her with wire and left her body in the trunk of a car at a mall in North Attleboro, MA. Kosilek is currently serving life without parole.
Wolf has ruled that Kosilek has suffered from gender identity disorder (newly rechristened “gender dysphoria”) since she was a young child, was “born in the wrong body” (Goddess, I hate that phrase), began taking hormones while in prison and requested treatment for her disorder. Such treatment was denied. As a result Kosilek twice has tried to commit suicide and also has attempted self-castration. For 12 years her attorneys have been arguing that the Constitution states that she has the right to treatment for her condition.