British Court Allows Transsexual to Be Transferred to Women's Prison
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
A British court issued a landmark ruling Friday, allowing a transsexual prisoner serving life for manslaughter and attempted rape to be transferred to a women's prison.
High Court Deputy Judge David Elvin said the refusal of Justice Secretary Jack Straw and the prison authorities to transfer the 27-year-old was a violation of her human rights.
The prisoner, who began gender reassignment treatment years ago to become a woman, was not named to protect her identity.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Keeping her in a male prison "effectively bars her ability to qualify for surgery, which interferes with her personal autonomy in a manner which goes beyond that which imprisonment is intended to do," Elvin said.
The prisoner's lawyer, Phillippa Kaufmann, said she would be transferred in the coming weeks.
Although born a man, she began the process of gender reassignment while in prison. In 2006, she obtained a legal acknowledgment that she should be recognized as a woman.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
The prisoner, who was then a man, was originally sentenced to five years for manslaughter in 2001 after strangling his boyfriend to death.
Days after his release, he tried to rape a female shopkeeper and was sentenced to life.
The judge said the prisoner had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and had been aware of her condition from an early age.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
In evidence presented for the hearing, she said she had always felt like a woman.
"For me it is simply a reflection of how it should have been from the start," she said, adding she hoped to have surgery soon to remove her penis.
She has adopted a female name, had facial and body hair permanently removed and developed breasts after hormone treatment.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Elvin said she looks "convincingly" like a woman, although she has been prevented from wearing skirts and other items in the male prison.