Debbie Schlussel: Small Favors: Taxpayers Won't Have to Subsidize Sex Change Op . . . For Now
Thank Heaven for small favors. American taxpayers won't have to subsidize the sex-change operation for Rhiannon O'Donnabhain, after all.
The 57-year-old Boston father, husband, Coast Guardsman, and construction tried to write off $25,000 in medical expenses to change him into a "her." AP reports that the tax code allows tax deductions for cosmetic surgery or similar procedures when they are needed to improve a congenital abnormality, an accident or trauma, or a disfiguring disease.
Incredibly, O'Donnabhain and the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (who represented him) tried to argue that a sex change is covered by that rule for the disfigured. But the IRS ruled against him.
Now the dispute is before the U.S. Tax Court, set for trial on July 24th. Incredible that this has gone this far.
Posted by Debbie on July 18, 2007 03:11 PM to Debbie Schlussel