[Yogi]

Is it just possible that common sense is beginning to seep into our justice system???

Public won't fund inmate's sex change

By TRACY MCLAUGHLIN, SPECIAL TO SUN MEDIA

SUN MEDIA




BARRIE - An inmate of an institution for the criminally insane was left in limbo yesterday after a judge refused her request to have the government pay for a $15,000 assessment that would qualify her for a sex change.

"It's pretty upsetting," said Shauna Taylor -- formerly named Vance Egglestone until she got a legal name change -- an inmate at the maximum security Oak Ridge Division of the Mental Health Centre in Penetanguishene. "I don't know who should pay, but somebody should pay."

Except for a brief stint of freedom, Taylor, 52, has been incarcerated since 1976 after being found not guilty by reason of insanity for the brutal rape of a Toronto woman.

BATTLING IN COURT

This past year she and her lawyer, Michael Davies, have been battling in court to try to get the judge to order the Attorney General to pay for a complicated assessment that will determine whether she should qualify for an orchidectomy -- the surgical removal of the testes -- to complete her transition into a female.

Taylor began the process of changing into a female in 2000, with extensive hormone therapy, nose surgery and $15,000 worth of permanent hair removal, and now wears dresses and high-heeled shoes, even though she is detained in an all-male facility.

At her mandatory annual review by the Ontario Review Board, Taylor insisted that she is being denied proper treatment for her gender disorder, which should include the assessment -- at a cost of about $15,000 -- and the surgery which would be paid by OHIP.

Ultimately, if she completed her transition to womanhood and if she were found no longer a danger to the public, she could be released back into the community, or at least to a female institution.

The ORB has agreed to order the assessment, and ordered the Attorney General to pay.

EXCEEDED JURISDICTION

But yesterday Superior court Justice Clair Marchand ruled that the ORB exceeded its jurisdiction by ordering the Attorney General to foot the bill.

"(The assessment) is not directed towards the legal needs of (Taylor)," said the judge in his written ruling.

"Instead it is to determine (Taylor's) mental condition which is beyond the purview of the ministry of the attorney general and falls more appropriately within the ministry of health and long-term care jurisdiction."

"I'm so frustrated. I feel like I am being forced to be who the system wants me to be," said Taylor in an interview. She believes the operation will go a long way in her healing.

"I am a female trapped inside a male's body."

A lawyer for the ORB, Stephen Moreau, said he will review the decision and may appeal

[QBC]

..Thank goodness they decided not to fund this BS.

If it want's to go under the knife to change it's parts....It should have to pay for it, not my tax dollars.

[martin14]

QBC wrote:

[cheer] ..Thank goodness they decided not to fund this BS.

If it want's to go under the knife to change it's parts....It should have to pay for it, not my tax dollars.

Agreed.

[QBC]

Hu?...handy then that your opinion means very little to me.

[Brenda]

Quote:

"I don't know who should pay, but somebody should pay."

Euhhhhm, yeah, what about YOU?

[Canadian_Mind]

Lol, if it is a woman trapped in a mans body, then why did it rape another woman?

[Strutz]

Quote:

Taylor began the process of changing into a female in 2000, with extensive hormone therapy, nose surgery and $15,000 worth of permanent hair removal, and now wears dresses and high-heeled shoes, even though she is detained in an all-male facility.

I'm curious, who paid for the hormone therapy, nose surgery and hair removal?

[ziggy]

You would think the other inmates would all chip in a few bucks for the surgery.

[Yogi]

ziggy wrote:

You would think the other inmates would all chip in a few bucks for the surgery.

No need for them to waste their canteen money. After all, 'two out of three' ain't bad!!!

[Bodah]

Looks like another case for the Human Rights Commission

[commanderkai]

"This past year she and her lawyer, Michael Davies, have been battling in court to try to get the judge to order the Attorney General to pay for a complicated assessment that will determine whether she should qualify for an orchidectomy -- the surgical removal of the testes -- to complete her transition into a female."

HE'S A FUCKING GUY, Say he!