In 'historic' ruling Calif. ordered to pay $100K for transgender inmate's sex change

[Natural Citizen]

California, currently facing water shortages, has money to pay for an inmate's costly sex change operation. A federal judge in San Francisco has ordered the state's corrections department to provide a transgender woman with sex change surgery.

It's the first time such an operation has been ordered in the state. According to the spokeswoman for the federal receiver, who controls California prison medical care, the surgery could cost taxpayers as much as $100,000.

US District Court Judge Jon Tigar ruled on Thursday that denying sex reassignment surgery to 51-year-old Michelle-Lael Norsworthy (whose birth name is Jeffrey Bryan) violates her rights to adequate medical care under the Eighth Amendment to the constitution.




Continued - In 'historic' ruling Calif. ordered to pay $100K for transgender inmate's sex change (http://rt.com/usa/246445-california-inmate-sex-change/)

[presence]

What if you think you need to smoke a bowl of grass to manage back pain?

[phill4paul]

Sure, they can spend $100k in taxpayer money so that a transgender can have quality of life in prison. Meanwhile they can't stop this from happening....

https://bossip.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/prisoner.jpg?w=700

[ClydeCoulter]

Will they move her to a womens prison then?

Yep, @Phill4Paul, they do what they want on the tax payers dime and not another thing. Get a Rope!

[Weston White]

What part of this pertains to adequate healthcare exactly?

[Christian Liberty]

This is why society will never be neutral...

[Cabal]

The prison had previously denied Michelle her gender-affirming surgery, although according to her treating psychologist it was medically necessary to treat her gender identity disorder.

The judge found that prison administrators “chose to ignore the clear recommendations of her mental health provider” and instead of following his recommendations, simply "removed her from his care."

Michelle testified she was suffering psychological pain caused by her untreated gender disorder (a diagnosis describing people who experience extreme discontent with the sex and gender they were born with.)


Nine states, including California, already require private insurers to cover medical care related to gender transition, and public insurance programs like Medicare and California’s Medicaid system also cover this type of care.

If the operation is performed, it will be the second time for such a procedure in US prisons. The first case was Richard Masbruch, an inmate in Texas, who castrated himself and was given the surgery out of necessity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_reassignment_therapy


In current medical practice, a diagnosis is required for sex reassignment therapy. In the International Classification of Diseases the diagnosis is known as transsexualism. The US Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) names it gender dysphoria (in version 5). While the diagnosis is a requirement for determining medical necessity of sex reassignment therapy, some people who are validly diagnosed have no desire for all or some parts of sex reassignment therapy, particularly genital reassignment surgery, and/or are not appropriate candidates for such treatment.


While a mental health assessment is required by the standards of care, psychotherapy is not an absolute requirement but is highly recommended.

Hormone replacement therapy is to be initiated on referral from a qualified health professional. The general requirements, according to the WPATH standards, include:

1. Persistent, well-documented gender dysphoria; 2. Capacity to make a fully informed decision and to consent for treatment; 3. Age of majority in a given country (however, the WPATH standards of care provide separate discussion of children and adolescents); 4. If significant medical or mental health concerns are present, they must be reasonably well-controlled.

Often, at least a certain period of psychological counseling is required before initiating hormone replacement therapy, as is a period of living in the desired gender role, if possible, to ensure that they can psychologically function in that life-role. On the other hand, some clinics provide hormone therapy based on informed consent alone.

As surgery is a radical and irreversible intervention, more stringent standards are usually applied. Generally speaking, physicians who perform sex-reassignment surgery require the patient to live as the members of their target gender in all possible ways for at least a year ("cross-live"), prior to the start of surgery, in order to assure that they can psychologically function in that life-role. This period is sometimes called the Real Life Test (RLT); it is part of a battery of requirements. Other frequent requirements are regular psychological counseling and letters of recommendation for this surgery.

The time period of "cross-living" is usually known as the Real-Life-Test (RLT) or Real-Life-Experience (RLE). It is sometimes required even before hormone therapy, but this is not always possible; transsexual men frequently cannot "pass" this period without hormones. Transsexual women may also require hormones to pass as women in society. Most trans women also require facial hair removal, voice training or voice surgery, and sometimes, facial feminization surgery, to be passable as females; these treatments are usually provided upon request with no requirements for psychotherapy or "cross-living".

[ZENemy]

If hobby lobby doesn't have to fund condoms then I don't have to fund this.

[PRB]

Will they move her to a womens prison then?

Yep, @Phill4Paul, they do what they want on the tax payers dime and not another thing. Get a Rope!

Most likely yes. Somebody has been watching Orange.

[PRB]

If hobby lobby doesn't have to fund condoms then I don't have to fund this.

I wasn't aware that condoms were ever required of anybody, even after ObamACAre.

[PRB]

it's a historical ruling if it's never been done before.

[enhanced_deficit]

After historic selection of SWC, all things is possible.

Boxer Praises President Obama for Nominating Jon S. Tigar
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today praised President Obama's nominations of Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jon S. Tigar ...

[phill4paul]

"Bob testified he was suffering psychological pain caused by incarceration.

"The prison had previously denied Bob his psychological trauma release, based on incarceration for selling a plant, although according to his treating psychologist it was medically necessary to treat his cancer stricken wife."

Think that will work?

[nobody's_hero]

I wish the media wouldn't indulge in his delusions by referring to him as a 'her.'

Now flame on, but that's just how I see it.

[TheTexan]

according to her treating psychologist it was medically necessary to treat her gender identity disorder.

I have a question for all of you who are against this. Are YOU a doctor? Because this person is, and according to this doctor, the treatment was medically necessary.

I don't think this was necessary, but then again --- I'm not a doctor.

[Danke]

I have a question for all of you who are against this. Are YOU a doctor? Because this person is, and according to this doctor, the treatment was medically necessary.

I don't think this was necessary, but then again --- I'm not a doctor.

Ya, but after the operation he'll be transferred to a woman's prison and won't get dick. I see a lawsuit for cruel and unusual punishment in the future. HB, what is your opinion?

[DevilsAdvocate]

I have a question for all of you who are against this. Are YOU a doctor? Because this person is, and according to this doctor, the treatment was medically necessary.

I don't think this was necessary, but then again --- I'm not a doctor.

So "gender identity disorder" is a real thing now? So what happened to all the people in the 1700's and 1800's with "GID", did they just die? Or go insane? What happens to all the animals with GID?

Is it really the case that all of a sudden in the modern world we have hordes of people suddenly becoming confused about the most basic facts of life? Or is it more likely that modern technology is allowing people to indulge in their mental insanity, and cut up their own bodies to produce a poor facsimile of the opposite sex?

I'm sure there's someone out there who wants to be a dolphin, and he will mutilate his own body to give himself fins, and a blowhole, and then he'll go drown in the ocean trying to swim with his fellow dolphins. This is not a natural psychological disorder, this is a deep seated mental illness. It's like if you wanted to be a squirrel, so you cut up your face to look like a squirrel, changed out your teeth for larger fake plastic ones, and went off living in the trees with your squirrel friends. You are not a squirrel, you will never be a squirrel. That's the way life is.

I think the reason people do this sort of thing to themselves is because they want to feel special. They get a strange kick out of being the one who sticks out in a crowd, being the one who doesn't fit. In many cases, in super liberal areas, children get indoctrinated into this strange way of thinking that makes them question their sexual identity from a very young age. When they really should be set on the straight and narrow by their parents, they are instead led down a wobbly path of confusion and self doubt. So a child who would have been a perfectly normal mans man, starting a family and living a normal life is now a bizarre aberration. Someone who will never find love and will never be at peace with themselves. All because they had weak parents.

[Danke]

So "gender identity disorder" is a real thing now? So what happened to all the people in the 1700's and 1800's with "GID", did they just die? Or go insane? What happens to all the animals with GID?

Is it really the case that all of a sudden in the modern world we have hordes of people suddenly becoming confused about the most basic facts of life? Or is it more likely that modern technology is allowing people to indulge in their mental insanity, and cut up their own bodies to produce a poor facsimile of the opposite sex?

I'm sure there's someone out there who wants to be a dolphin, and he will mutilate his own body to give himself fins, and a blowhole, and then he'll go drown in the ocean trying to swim with his fellow dolphins. This is not a natural psychological disorder, this is a deep seated mental illness. It's like if you wanted to be a squirrel, so you cut up your face to look like a squirrel, changed out your teeth for larger fake plastic ones, and went off living in the trees with your squirrel friends. You are not a squirrel, you will never be a squirrel. That's the way life is.

I think the reason people do this sort of thing to themselves is because they want to feel special. They get a strange kick out of being the one who sticks out in a crowd, being the one who doesn't fit. In many cases, in super liberal areas, children get indoctrinated into this strange way of thinking that makes them question their sexual identity from a very young age. When they really should be set on the straight and narrow by their parents, they are instead led down a wobbly path of confusion and self doubt. So a child who would have been a perfectly normal mans man, starting a family and living a normal life is now a bizarre aberration. Someone who will never find love and will never be at peace with themselves. All because they had weak parents.

Did you just respond to bxm042 with a serious post?

[lilymc]

I was really hoping this was an April Fool's joke. This is for real?

[Brian4Liberty]

California, currently facing water shortages, has money to pay for an inmate's costly sex change operation.

LOL. What in the hell does this have to do with water shortages? Will money buy more rain?

[RJB]

I think the state of California should be ordered to give me $1,000,000 so I can get what I want. Like a nice house, lots of land, a magical flying pony...

[idiom]

Maybe Ben Carson was on to something about how Prison changes you?

[A. Havnes]

I'm in psychological distress, too. The bills are piling up and the weather is awful. Can I get some tax payers to help? No? What makes this guy so special?

In all seriousness, what part of this constitutes as medical necessity? If the guy had BIID (a kind of off-shoot of GID in which people think that they're disabled people in an able person's body and want to chop off their hands or legs and stuff), would the state pay for it? Probably not. The guy isn't dying, he's just throwing a tantrum.