PinkNews.co.uk – GayLinkContent.com Writer
Rhiannon O’Donnabhain “lived in anguish” as a male, struggling with the sense that she was, in fact, a female.
In 1996, she was diagnosed with gender identity disorder and undertook a course of professionally prescribed medical treatments that included her 2001 sex reassignment surgery.
Ms O’Donnabhain claimed the cost of her treatment as a deductible medical expense on her federal income tax return, but the Internal Revenue Service denied the claim, calling the surgery “cosmetic,” like teeth whitening or hair transplants.
Ms O’Donnabhain is challenging that denial.
The trial in O’Donnabhain v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue begins today in Boston.