Lisa Bul / AP file
Robert Kosilek sits in Bristol County Superior Court, in New Bedford, Mass., Jan. 15, 1993. Kosilek, now named Michelle, has since undergone hormone treatment for gender-identity disorder.
By NBC News staff and wire services, NBC News
A federal judge in Boston on Tuesday ordered the Massachusetts Department of Corrections to provide sex-change surgery to a transgender inmate serving life in prison for murder.
U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ruled in the case of Michelle Kosilek, who was born as a man but has received hormone treatments and lives as a woman in an all-male prison. Robert Kosilek was convicted of murder in the killing of his wife in 1990.
According to The Associated Press, Wolf is the first federal judge to order prison officials to provide the surgery for a transgender inmate.
In his ruling Tuesday, Wolf found that surgery is the "only adequate treatment" for Kosilek's "serious medical need."
"The court finds that there is no less intrusive means to correct the prolonged violation of Kosilek's Eighth Amendment right to adequate medical care," Wolf wrote in his 126-page ruling.
"This is a very big victory," said Kosilek's attorney, Frances S. Cohen told NBC News. Although the ruling is not binding outside the state, she said: "I think it will be very influential beyond Massachusetts."
It was not known whether the Massachusetts Department of Corrections would appeal the ruling.
After Kosilek first sued the state department 12 years ago, Wolf ruled that Kosilek was entitled to treatment for gender-identity disorder, but stopped short of ordering surgery. In 2002, Kosilek started a trial of hormones, with the intention of reevaluating the need for surgery. She sued again in 2006.
The department was supposed to reevaluate after one year, according to Cohen.
"In 2006, it became clear that they were not doing this in good faith," she said.
Prison officials have repeatedly cited security risks in the case, saying that allowing the surgery would make Kosilek a target for sexual assault.
But Wolf found that the department's security concerns are "either pretextual or can be dealt with by the DOC." He said it is up to prison officials to decide how and where to house Kosilek after the surgery, AP reported.
The Massachusetts ruling came just two weeks after the American Psychiatry Association published its updated position strongly endorsing access to treatment for transgender and gender variant individuals, noting that they "can benefit greatly from medical and surgical transition treatments."
"There is increased awareness that this kind of care is not particularly special," said Kristina Wertz, director of programs and policy at the nonprofit Transgender Law Center in San Francisco. "It's just medically necessary care. Our prison systems have an obligation to provide medically necessary health care."
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press and NBC News staff.
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