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| Money for prisoner sex changes denied |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 04/18/2005 |
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No state or federal money would be used to help Wisconsin prisoners change their sex under a Republican-authored bill the state Senate approved Tuesday. The Senate approved the Republican bill on a voice vote with no debate, sending it to the state Assembly. That body must pass an identical version of the measure and Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle must sign it before it can become law. The bill prohibits the Department of Corrections from using state or federal money to provide hormone therapy or sex-change surgery. Under current state law, the Department of Corrections must provide medical services for inmates of state prisons, including treatment for prisoners suffering from diagnosed gender identity disorder. Prison sex changes became an issue for the GOP after a prisoner named Scott Konitzer, who now goes by the name Donna Dawn Konitzer, filed a lawsuit demanding the agency turn him into a woman. The agency provided Konitzer, 40, with hormone therapy since 1999 but wouldn't allow sex-change surgery. Konitzer is serving 123 years for multiple armed robberies and stabbing another inmate. The case is still pending in federal court in Milwaukee. Konitzer's attorney, Brian Cothroll, declined to comment on the Senate action. The Department of Corrections spent about $4,400 in the fiscal year that ended June 30 on hormone therapy for two inmates, according to an estimate by the Legislative Reference Bureau attached to the bill. Hormones can help stimulate development or alter a person's sexual characteristics, according to the bill. The department has never spent any money on gender-changing surgery, the estimate said. |
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