BOSTON (AP) — A woman who battled the U.S. tax system in court to win a deduction for the costs of her sex-change operation says she feels like she won a victory for all transgender people.
Rhiannon O'Donnabhain, who was born a man, sued the federal Internal Revenue Service in 2007 after the agency rejected a $5,000 deduction for about $25,000 in medical expenses. The agency had contended the sex-change surgery was a cosmetic procedure and not medically necessary.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Tax Court ruled that O'Donnabhain should be allowed to deduct the costs of her treatment for gender-identity disorder, including sex-change surgery and hormone treatments.
"The tax court has spoken for my community and has supported my community by saying that this is a proper medical deduction, much the same as an appendectomy or open heart surgery," O'Donnabhain said in an interview Wednesday.
"It certainly is not cosmetic surgery as the IRS contended," she said.
Internal Revenue Service spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge declined to comment on the ruling.
The legal group Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, which represented O'Donnabhain, said the decision could potentially affect thousands of people in the U.S. who undergo similar operations.
Lambda Legal, a national civil rights group for homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender people, also hailed the ruling.
"It ratifies what the medical community has said clearly for years, which is for people with gender identity disorder, this type of surgery is frequently a medical necessity for their lives and for their health and for their well-being," said Hayley Gorenberg, the group's deputy legal director.
The Tax Court voted 11-5 to grant the deduction.
In a dissenting opinion, Judge David Gustafson said he believes sex reassignment surgery falls within the "cosmetic surgery" category of the tax code and the expense is therefore not deductible.
O'Donnabhain said she underwent sex-reassignment surgery at age 57, after a tormented existence as a father, husband, Coast Guardsman and construction worker.
An estimated 1,600 to 2,000 people a year undergo sex-change surgery in the United States, according to the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.
