"She", not "he", guys

[henry quirk]

Woulda been a good place to start, yeah.

[BigV]

the story says very little about the circumstances of his trial, except that he murdered his wife. do you believe all murderers deserve to be executed?

[BrianR]

My Googling skilz are not good enough to uncover the original news and trial.

Anyone in MA? Can you look in the news archives and see?

[henry quirk]

No more than you believe all murderers deserve to be set free (or locked away for a lifetime).

Irrelevant in any event.

The piece is about one guy who killed, not all folks who killed.

I assume (perhaps wrongly) his jail time is justified...I also assume (perhaps wrongly) that he might deserve a bullet in the head.

So sue me.

*shrug*

[infinite monkey]

Maybe he killed her in a really sweet way. Lovingly strangled her? Caressed her to ribbons? Smothered her with the finest french silk pillows?

[BigV]

then why did you say executing him would have been a good place to start?

[infinite monkey]

.

[henry quirk]

As I said: I made an assumption (perhaps right, perhaps wrong).

Again: sue me.

Go take it up with Bruce if you're lookin' for a tussle.

Me: not interested.

[Cyber Wolf]

Did I miss somewhere that details why sex change surgery is medically necessary for this guy? And when I mean medically necessary, I mean necessary like a stint for a blocked artery or skin grafts for a severe burn or neonatal care for a baby and/or mother with really bad timing?

How does not changing him keep him in bad health? And if it's mental health they're talking about, don't they have head docs for that?

[infinite monkey]

“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,” wrote Judge Wolf, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan. “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.”

Judge Wolf acknowledged that Mr. Kosilek, a convicted murderer, may receive better care for his disorder than many law-abiding Americans.

“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,” he wrote, pointing to a 2011 Supreme Court decision that said providing anything less was “incompatible with the concept of human dignity.”

Judge Wolf said correction officials, not himself, should decide where the surgery should take place, who should perform it and where Kosilek should be incarcerated after the surgery.

The whole thing is ludicrous. So now we're supposed to once again consider gender identity issues as major mental disorders? What happened to how fluid gender is and how natural it is when the lines are blurred?

I'm confused.

Anyway, Imma go murder my husband so I can go to prison. I'd really like to look like Catherine Zeta Jones and I need some surgery to get there.

Oh, I don't have a husband. Shoot.

*backs away slowly from the coming flames*

[Cyber Wolf]

Originally Posted by infinite monkey

Oh, I don't have a husband. Shoot.

Just order one! Satisfaction not guaranteed...

[infinite monkey]

Originally Posted by Cyber Wolf

Just order one! Satisfaction not guaranteed...

Oh my. I couldn't pick on so I did the compatibility test. I was hooked up with Arnaud, who only smells (how you say) a little.

[henry quirk]

*Agreed.










*But: my own views ('he' is not interchangeable with 'she') are already posted in this thread over and over, so I have no need to beat that drum again.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by henry quirk

*Agreed.










*But: my own views ('he' is not interchangeable with 'she') are already posted in this thread over and over, so I have no need to beat that drum again.

If it was really "needless", why bother bringing it up again?

[BrianR]

Genders are not interchangeable. You are what you are between your ears.

I do not go back and forth, as the situation demands. I am a female. Period. That I was born with male parts is fixable now. And when it's all said and done, I will be a woman. With female parts. Period. I don't get to say I'm a man now because the mechanic is lying to me again. Or I really want that job but they don't hire women for it. Or because it's Tuesday.

Transsexuals generally do not go in for anything other than the binary gender paradigm. (I've always wanted to use that word!) We only want to fit in to the existing norm. It's the others on the TG spectrum that want to play games with gender. Live and let live, I say.

I do not agree with discriminating against anyone on the basis of their appearance, even if it makes you uncomfortable. *I* happen to dislike bigots. But do I go around saying they should not be permitted to breed? Or should be rounded up and exiled? Or shot? No. Yet this is what transsexuals live with daily.

Back on topic, that prisoner does not suffer from a mental illness, as some suggest. It is a physical deformity that is easily visible, yet camouflaged in plain sight. But, unlike other types of deformity, such as a deviated septum or a harelip or a club foot, this deformity affects primarily the mind. That is why so many would (and do) deny appropriate treatment as defined by medical professionals. GRS/SRS is NOT cosmetic surgery in the case of a transsexual, it is corrective.

The judge ruled properly, yet I still wish it had been someone other than a prisoner, because the resulting news coverage may hurt us as much as help us.

I truly hope that this decision stands, not for the benefit of prisoners, but because it can have ripple effects for us all.

More and more health plans are covering Hormone Replacement Therapy, counseling and even surgery for transsexuals. One day soon, Medicare will cover it too, I hope. That, I believe, will sway a majority of health plans.