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Synthia Kavanagh: Transsexual Wins Right to be Housed in Women's Prison |
September 22, 2001 |
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The Canadian correctional service has been ordered to provide sex reassignment surgery to transsexuals in prison in appropriate cases, and then to house them in the facility of their new gender, a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has ruled. Synthia Kavanagh, a male to female transsexual who was housed in a male prison, had filed a human rights complaint after hormone therapy she had been taking before going to prison was discontinued. Kavanagh argued that she is a woman who has suffered from a disability, gender dysphoria (transsexualism), and should be treated as a woman with a medical problem. She sought a change in Corrections Canada policies under pre-operative male to female transsexual prisoners were housed in male prison facilities and under which sex reassignment surgery was prohibited while an individual was incarcerated. The Zenith Foundation, an organization benefitting transsexuals, intervened in support of Kavanagh. Kavanagh was successful in both aspects of her claim. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal agreed that the current policy of housing male to female transsexuals among the male population was discriminatory because it did not take into account the special vulnerabilities of transsexuals as a group. It required Corrections Canada to assess transsexuals and their housing needs individually in consultation with a physician expert in the treatment of gender dysphoria, and gave Corrections Canada six months to develop an appropriate housing policy for transsexual inmates. The tribunal also held that the absolute ban on sex reassignment surgery was unwarranted and discriminatory, and required that Corrections Canada amend its policy to permit incarcerated individuals who had completed the qualifying period for sex reassignment surgery before going to jail to have the necessary surgery where it was recommended by their physicians, and to have the surgery at the expense of Corrections Canada. Kavanagh herself had
sex reassignment surgery in 2000, further to a settlement of her individual
complaint against Corrections Canada, and is currently completing her
sentence in a women's correctional facility. For more information:
Barbara Findlay was counsel for Synthia Kavanagh with respect to her individual complaint. Stephanie Castle appeared for the Zenith Foundation, an organization benefitting transsexuals which appeared at the hearing. Castle is the author of Prisoner of Gender, a biography of another transsexual in Canadian prisons.
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