Judge: Mass. must provide prisoner gender reassignment

Faneuil Hall in Boston near where a Federal judge made history ruling the state is responsible for the gender reassignment surgery for a prisoner serving a life sentence for murder. (Photo by Lennart Poettering via Creative Commons licensing)

BOSTON — A federal judge has made history ruling that the state is responsible for providing gender reassignment surgery for a trans prisoner serving a life sentence for murder.

In his ruling, Ronald Reagan appointee Judge Mark Wolf — who initially ordered the state to provide the prisoner with hormone therapy in 2002 — found that surgery is the “only adequate treatment” for Massachusetts inmate Michelle Kosilek’s “serious medical need.”

“The court finds that there is no less intrusive means to correct the prolonged violation of Kosilek’s Eighth Amendment right to adequate medical care,” Wolf wrote in his 126-page ruling, according to an AP report.