What the Fuck is Going On with Perceptions of Racism by the Left These Days?

[garbon]

On a different but related note:

http://news.yahoo.com/prison-officials-inmate-doesnt-sex-change-155849483.html

Prison officials: Inmate doesn't need sex change

Massachusetts prison officials on Thursday made another push to overturn a court ruling that would force them to provide a taxpayer-funded sex-change operation to a murder convict with gender-identity disorder.

The inmate has been given a substantial amount of care, including female hormones, laser hair removal and psychotherapy, and doesn't need the surgery, the Department of Corrections attorney Richard McFarland told the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

"The clinician didn't say you must have this surgery, but that if you want it you can get it," McFarland said Thursday. Only 5 percent of people diagnosed with the disorder actually undergo sex-assignment surgery, he added.

Michelle Kosilek, born Robert Kosilek, has been in a heated legal battle to get the surgery, which she says is required to relieve the emotional stress caused by the disorder. Kosilek is currently serving a life sentence for killing spouse Cheryl Kosilek in 1990.

In 2012, a federal judge ruled that the department must give Kosilek the surgery.

In January, that decision was reaffirmed by a three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said it is a constitutional right to receive medically necessary treatment "even if that treatment strikes some as odd or unorthodox."

The prisons department appealed and won a rehearing before the full appeals court. Five appeals court judges heard arguments on the matter Thursday and could take months to issue a decision.

The department said in a statement Thursday that it "fully acknowledges the legitimacy of a gender identity disorder diagnosis" but was appealing because of "the court's significant expansion of the standard for what constitutes adequate care under the Eighth Amendment."

Multiple doctors have testified that surgery is the only sufficient treatment for Kosilek, who has tried twice to commit suicide while incarcerated. There is no exact amount of how much the state-funded surgery will cost, but it could be up to $50,000.

Kosilek's lawyer, Joseph Sulman, said the present treatment regime has alleviated "some of her pain, but she still suffers from severe mental anguish that cannot be treated without the surgery."

The department also argued that housing Kosilek at an all-male facility could raise serious security issues. McFarland said if Kosilek received the surgery, her notoriety could potentially create a dangerous climate for her among other prisoners.

But Judge William Kayatta, Jr. noted the department already houses infamous prisoners, and he said the only reason Kosilek is notorious is because she was "consistently pursuing her rights through the U.S. Constitution." He also noted the department could someday be required to house an inmate who already had a sex change.

At the close of the hearing, Sulman said, "After all the medical recommendations, if the court reverses their decision, there would never be a prisoner who has a need for this surgery."

If it loses its appeals, Massachusetts would be the first state to fund sex-reassignment surgery for an inmate.

[Queequeg]

She's a murderer. It's am expensive operation.

[Viking]

I just think that if we didn't have a socially constructed gender and sexuality in addition to our biological genders none of this would be an issue. Then again, like with gays, there is something going on in the heads of these people that I cannot fathom or appreciate or understand.. and I'm willing to take their word for it as long as they don't use much more than their fair share of taxes to do what they need to do.

[Ideologue]

Imagine being really fat.  Like 400 lbs.  You'd be disgusted with yourself all the time until you lost 240 pounds.  I imagine it's a lot like that.

[garbon]

What would it mean to not have sexuality?

I do think it'd be great if we didn't have gender roles / gender role expectations.

[Queequeg]

What would it mean to not have sexuality?

I do think it'd be great if we didn't have gender roles / gender role expectations.

David Reimer.  It's impossible. 

[Jacob]

What would it mean to not have sexuality?

Isn't that being asexual?

[Queequeg]

Actually, I've been reading some more and I'm fully willing to believe that transsexualism results from a real neurological condition and that treatment and surgery are appropriate under the right circumstances.  Asexuality strikes me as just bullshit though, almost certainly resulting from psychological or health disorders. 

[garbon]

What would it mean to not have sexuality?

Isn't that being asexual?

I guess so. I don't know why that would be a preferred place for humanity.

[Razgovory]

Raz, I explained this already, and you're just arguing for the sake of it. 

You know, it's a shame you didn't study something in school that would make you better at say, advocating a position.  Something like that could have been useful.