3/31/2014 Woman appalled by GLAD’s support of killer | Boston Herald

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Woman appalled by GLAD’s support of killer

Monday, March 31, 2014

Erin Smith

A leading Bay State advocate for gay, bisexual and transgender people sidestepped questions about why the

organization has publicly supported a convicted wife killer but not a Cambridge transgender woman in two

separate legal bids for taxpayer-funded gender reassignment surgery.

“I’m not going to respond to individual cases,” said Jennifer Levi, director of Transgender Rights Project at the

Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders. Levi said the group is working on other cases pushing

Medicare and MassHealth to cover the same operation.

Anita T. Phoenix told the Herald she “lost total respect for GLAD” after the organization filed a brief earlier this

month supporting Michelle Kosilek in the state’s federal appeal of a ruling to require Massachusetts to pay for

gender reassignment surgery for the transgender prisoner and convicted murderer.

Phoenix said GLAD turned down her request for help in her own federal lawsuit against Medicare and

MassHealth for refusing to cover gender reassignment surgery.

Levi said, “There are a number of insurance plans both private and public that exclude medical care relating to

gender transition. We’re very committed to challenging those exclusions. GLAD believes that those exclusions

are unprincipled, discriminatory and defy everything we know about the medical research related to gender

dysphoria.”

Author(s):

Erin Smith / Boston Herald

@SmithReports

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