BayWindows.com – Laura Kiritsy
A psychiatrist testifying as an expert witness for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) questioned the judgment of his colleagues who recommended sex-reassignment surgery for Rhiannon O?Donnabhain, who is suing the IRS for the right to deduct the cost of the surgery from her taxes. But one of O?Donnabhain?s lawyers, Bennett Klein of Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), questioned the psychiatrist?s qualifications to determine O?Donnabhain?s treatment needs, as U.S. Tax Court Judge Joseph H. Gale heard a third day of testimony in the case on July 26.
Dr. Chester Schmidt, Jr., a psychiatry professor at John Hopkins University and co-founder of the university hospital?s Sexual Behaviors Consultation Unit (SBCU), stated that gender identity disorder (GID) specialists Diane Ellaborn, a licensed clinical social worker, and psychologist Dr. Alex Coleman recommended O?Donnabhain for sex-reassignment surgery without knowledge of her history of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and her history of depression, for which O?Donnabhain was treated with anti-depressants. Schmidt learned of the conditions after reviewing the notes of Dr. Judith Robinson, a psychiatrist who also treated O?Donnabhain, and those of Ellaborn and Coleman, who both previously testified at the trial (See ?Experts at tax trial explain gender identity disorder,? July 26).