BOSTON, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Massachusetts prison officials say state taxpayers shouldn't have to foot the bill for a male transsexual convicted killer who wants a sex-change operation.
Robert "Michelle" Kosilek, 61, is living and dressing as a woman at the all-male MCI-Norfolk state prison, where he is serving life for the 1990 strangulation of his 36-year-old wife, Cheryl, the Boston Herald reported.
Kosilek is suing the Department of Correction to have taxpayers pay for electrolysis and a sex-change operation, the newspaper said.
Prison officials responded by saying Kosilek doesn't have any hair issues that couldn't be resolved by a close shave and heavier makeup.
"It is my opinion that a reasonable accommodation to address this inmate's concern would be to allow the inmate to shave more frequently (twice daily) and to allow the use of cosmetics to further feminize her appearance," Dr. Robert B. Diener, the chairman of the prison system's Gender Identity Disorder Treatment Committee, said in a report filed last week in U.S. District Court in Boston.
Kosilek has been waiting 10 years for a decision on his sex-change suit and says in court filings he has attempted both suicide and self-castration in despair and "has informed the court that in her view the record is closed and she's ready for a decision," said Kosilek's attorney, Frances Cohen.
