[Commentary] [USA] Pandering in the Massachusetts Senate Race

[Stephanie Stevens]

Gay City News, NY, USA


Pandering in the Massachusetts Senate Race

Added by admin on September 12, 2012.

Saved under Editor's Letter


BY PAUL SCHINDLER | As Arthur S. Leonard reports
<http://gaycitynews.com/federal-judge-orders-gender-reassignment-surgery-for-inmate/>
, the chief judge of
the US District Court for Massachusetts last week ordered that the
prison system in that state provide a transgender inmate with gender
reassignment surgery. Michelle Kosilek is serving a life sentence,
without possibility of parole, in the murder of the woman she married
while living as a man. Noting that Kosilek has attempted both suicide
and self-castration, the judge found that medical professionals
working in the prison system consider the surgery medically necessary.

One of the most hotly contested US Senate races in the nation is
underway in Massachusetts, and both candidates quickly criticized the
judge’s ruling. Republican incumbent Scott Brown, who is trying to
trim his conservative sails to match the state’s liberal electorate,
especially with President Barack Obama on the ballot, nevertheless
wasted no time in terming the decision “an outrageous abuse of
taxpayer dollars.” His challenger, Elizabeth Warren, is a strong
progressive and a Harvard law professor as well, so her statement was
more temperate, even if its thrust paralleled that of Brown’s. “I have
to say, I don’t think it’s a good use of taxpayer dollars,” she told a
local radio station.

Both statements were unfortunate, pandering not only to society’s
contempt for violent offenders but more significantly to its tendency
to view transgender health issues as frivolous.

A court ruling in favor of a convicted murderer, of course, is not an
opportune moment for an LGBT rights advance. But important principles
are at stake here that transcend the specifics of this case. Given the
disinclination in the Republican Party these days to engaging in
nuanced discussion of any issue on which there is a quick
crowd-pleasing answer, Brown’s response is not altogether surprising.
It is more disappointing that Warren, whose work in the past few years
on financial reform issues in Washington has demonstrated a laudable
respect for intelligent analysis and humane values, felt the need for
a craven response.

Our society imprisons offenders who break the law and threaten the
public welfare. There is a broad consensus around stiff penalties when
those offenses involve violence, severe injury, and death. Even
regarding the death penalty, which most civilized nations reject,
Americans have historically shown support, even if faith in that
ultimate remedy has declined in recent years

Nobody, however, seriously argues that once imprisoned, inmates should
not have their health needs attended to. An inmate with cancer would
not be denied chemotherapy, no matter how expensive. Even in cases of
non-life-threatening ailments –– broken bones, serious sprains, and
the like –– we would not expect prisoners to spend the rest of their
lives with deformities. Nor would anyone demand that a prisoner with
bipolar disorder or another mental illness that is treatable live with
the psychological pain it entails.

The Supreme Court has been quite clear that the Eighth Amendment’s bar
on cruel and unusual punishment requires that prisons not show
“deliberate indifference” to serious medical conditions suffered by
inmates. There is irony here. A society that does not yet clearly have
an obligation to provide health care to those outside of prison has
one to those behind bars. That is a burden that society accepts when
it takes away a person’s freedom, no matter how justified the choice
of incarceration is

In the end, this debate is not about convicted killers getting
expensive medical care. Or about them getting treatment they would not
be owed if they had never committed their crime.

Instead, it is about whether we, as a society, take seriously the
health needs of our transgender fellow citizens. When Scott Brown uses
the word “outrageous,” he is talking much more about society paying
for gender reassignment surgery than he is about it spending money on
care for a killer. We’ve never heard a peep from him about other
expensive medical treatments for violent offenders, even though, as
with them, Kosilek’s care is deemed medically necessary.

This is a point we wish Warren understood and had the courage to
articulate. We hope that conversations with experts in gender identity
health issues can help bring her around.


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