Convicted transgender killer is closer to getting taxpayer-funded gender reassignment surgery 

One Massachusetts hospital and six surgeons are considering performing Michelle Kosilek’s sex change surgery. But the convicted murderer, born Robert, still has a hard legal fight before his operation.

BY Carol Kuruvilla

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

AP

Robert Kosilek, who was convicted of killing his wife, is now jailed in a Massachusetts prison and legally changed his name to Michelle. Kosilek, 57, wants the state Department of Correction to pay for a sex change operation.

Convicted murderer Michelle Kosilek is one step closer to gender reassignment surgery.
One Massachusetts hospital is considering hosting Kosilek’s taxpayer-funded surgery, while six doctors have expressed interest in performing it. But the state Department of Correction still needs to find a doctor willing to get a Massachusetts license and malpractice insurance, The Boston Globe reports.
Last September, U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ordered prison officials to provide surgery for the transgender inmate, saying the surgery is the “only adequate treatment” for Kosilek’s gender identity disorder.
As a man, Robert Kosilek was found guilty of first-degree murder for strangling his wife, Cheryl in 1990. He later dumped her body in a car in a mall parking lot.
The killer then legally changed her name to Michelle. She is currently living as a woman and receiving hormone treatments in an all-male prison.

./AP

Robert J. Kosilek, now living as Michelle, was found guilty of strangling his 36-year-old wife Cheryl in 1993.

Correction Commissioner Luis S. Spencer said in a court document that the department is willing to send the woman out of state if her surgery can’t be completed in Massachusetts. His preference, however, is for the surgery to take place in Massachusetts.
“The safety and security and logistical issues relative to the transportation and housing of Kosilek pre- and post-surgery and during recuperation, if the (surgery) takes place out of state, would be significant,’’ Spencer wrote in an affidavit.
Kosilek still faces several hurdles before the surgery can take place. The positive response from the Massachusetts hospital was tentative.
In addition, the surgeon that performs the operation needs to be granted malpractice insurance as well as a license to practice in the state. Of the six who have agreed to conduct the surgery, five are willing to come to Massachusetts. The licensing process could take up to six months, the Globe reports.
Frankie Ziths/ASSOCIATED PRESS

In this photo from May 24, 1990, Robert Kosilek, left, is led to a police vehicle en route to the county jail following his arraignment in New Rochelle. He was brought in for drunk driving charges.