Wisconsin Convict Serving
128 Years Wants Sex Change
Madison (August 9, 2004) - A slap in the face to taxpayers is what two Wisconsin legislators are calling a lawsuit to force the state to underwrite a sex change operation for a prison inmate.
A prisoner at the Wisconsin Resource Center near Oshkosh was given hormone therapy and is now suing the state for a taxpayer-financed sex change surgery. State Senator Bob Welch (R-Redgranite) and Representative Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford) called the situation a shocking abuse of tax dollars.
“Prisons should not be spas where criminals get to have taxpayers fund any outlandish medical procedure they might dream up,” said Suder. “When and if prisoners are released, they may choose to pursue whatever medical procedures they desire, at their own expense.”
In 1999, Scott Konitzer, serving 128 years in prison for armed robbery, was given hormone therapy by prison doctors, after he was diagnosed with “gender identity disorder” a condition in which people claim to feel uncomfortable with their biological sex.
“Should the state of Wisconsin be in the business of making male prisoners into females, or females into males? No. Not with hormones, not with surgery. Not under any circumstances,” said Welch. “And not with tax dollars.”
The legislators are calling for a halt in the use of hormone treatment to cause prisoners to develop alternate sex characteristics, as well as an audit of state prison pharmaceuticals use and protocol to determine how widespread such dubious practices are within the corrections system. Wisconsin Department of Corrections policy allows the dispensation of hormones to an inmate diagnosed with gender identity disorder, but does not allow sexual reassignment surgery.
“Certainly we should provide prison inmates with life-saving care,” said Suder. “But taxpayers should not have to pay for experimental games with an inmate’s biologically determined sex. It looks like Corrections set themselves up for a lawsuit by paying for this ridiculous hormone treatment in the first place.”
There is considerable disagreement in the medical community as to whether it is safe or appropriate for doctors to artificially induce a person to exhibit physical traits of the opposite sex using hormones. Most private health insurance will not pay for such radical and potentially dangerous medical treatment, and the lawmakers say this is a wildly inappropriate use of tax dollars.
“This situation makes a mockery of prudent use of tax dollars,” said Welch. “Working families across Wisconsin are asking for a little tax relief, and then they learn their hard-earned dollars go to fund inappropriate hormone treatment for a convicted criminal. It’s outrageous.”
Lawmakers say it’s vital that Wisconsin prisons set reasonable limits on what kind of taxpayer funded medical procedures are performed in the corrections system, to protect both taxpayers and inmates. The case is expected to have impact outside Wisconsin, as other inmates in search of sex-change surgery watch the outcome.
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