OK, somehow I let this one slip past, and for that I apologize. Follow closely. In 1987 a man used a hammer to murder a Toronto transsexual prostitute. The killer was sentenced to 25 years in prison, the maximum allowed under Canadian law. Now named Synthia Kavanagh, he won a court ruling in 2003 to be removed from his male jail, put in female correctional facility and have the government pay for his gender re-assignment surgery. The court upheld a 2001 tribunal recommendation from the Canadian Human Rights Commission ordering the sex-change operation based on Kavanagh's "gender identity disorder" and "gender dysphoria." Remarkably, Corrections Canada, in a fit of apparent sobriety, had not adhered to that finding.

"If the medical opinion is that sex reassignment surgery is an essential service for a particular inmate, it follows that it should be paid for by Correctional Services Canada, as would any other essential medical service," wrote Madam Justice Carolyn Layden-Stevenson (Federal Court of Canada) in her ruling. The decision forced the government to pay for sex reassignment surgery for any transsexual behind bars who wanted it.

Ah, but we're just getting to the good part. More recently, Kavanagh was given a sex toy by prison authorities, for "theraputic purposes." Subsequently, Kavanagh went on a violent rampage and had to be transferred to a higher-security jail.

Maybe they forgot the batteries?

I'd really, really, really like to say that this is the first time I've blogged about a criminal whose sex-organ surgery was paid for by a state sympathetic to "gender dysphoria." But I can't.

TECHNORATI TAGS: CANADA, PRISONER, SEX CHANGE, SEX TOY, PERPETRATORS' RIGHTS

TO COMMENT: The regular "comment" feature is not in operation. E-mail comments to address under "Contact" on main page masthead, and I'll add them, here.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at November 13, 2005 10:48 AM