Judge Orders California to Pay for Inmate’s Sex Change

04.04.2015 | News | Alicia Powe |

A federal judge on Thursday ordered California’s correction department to grant a ‘transgender’ inmate with sex change surgery.

Michelle-Lael Norsworthy, born as Jeffrey Bryan Norsworthy, has been serving a life sentence in prison since 1987 and started living as a woman in the 1990’s. She was diagnosed with severe gender dysphoria, a condition in which people identify with a different gender than they were born, and began taking hormone treat for her “condition.”

Her/his attorney, Ilona Turner of the Transgender Law Center, claims she is “suffering excruciating psychological and emotional pain due to her gender dysphoria.” Correction officials argued that Norsworthy has received counseling, mental health treatment and hormone therapy for more than 15 years and is in no immediate medical danger if the surgery is not performed.

U.S. District Court Judge Jon Tigar, an Obama appointee, told the prison system to let her have the operation “as promptly as possible,” that sex reassignment surgery is the “only adequate” treatment for Norsworth’s condition. Denying her the surgery, he said, would be an “unconstitutional” violation of the Eighth Amendment which protects against cruel and unusual punishment.

“The decision confirms that it is unlawful to deny essential treatment to transgender people,” Tigar sad. ” The bottom line is no one should be denied the medical care they need.”

The surgery can cost as much as a $100,000, one third of which will be absorbed by California’s taxpayers, according to California Corrections Health Care Service spokeswoman Joyce Hayhoe.

The ruling marks the second time nationwide that a judge has issued an injunction directing a state prison system to provide the surgery. The first time an inmate who castrated himself in Texas was given the surgery out of necessity.

Perhaps the Department of Corrections should create transgender prisons–one for men who used to be women and another women who used to be men?

Alicia Powe

Staff Writer

Alicia Powe is a staff writer for Daily Surge. She worked in the War Room of the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee and served as a White House Intern during the George W. Bush administration. Alicia has written for numerous outlets, including Human Events, Media Research Center and Townhall.com.

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