Department Of Justice Sues Utah Prison After Their Refusal To Provide Trans Inmate With Hormone Treatment Caused Her To Cut Her Testicles Clean Off

Department Of Justice Sues Utah Prison After Their Refusal To Provide Trans Inmate With Hormone Treatment Caused Her To Cut Her Testicles Clean Off

A complaint was filed on Tuesday, alleging that a trans woman in a Utah jail was pushed to do surgery on herself because her demands for medical attention were ignored for an extended period.

“Twenty-two months after entering custody, she performed dangerous self-surgery and removed her testicles,” a press release read.

According to the Independent, The state of Utah and its Department of Corrections (DOC) are being sued by the US Department of Justice for allegedly discriminating against the lady due to her gender dysphoria.

 

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According to the lawsuit, the inmate was not given equal access to healthcare, despite repeated requests for hormone therapy, compared to other inmates. To add on, a lack of changes to policies, including not allowing the women to purchase female clothing at the commissary, severely affected her mental health according to The Department of Justice.

The woman required further hospital treatment and surgery, following the incident in May 2023. The inmate had arrived at the UDOC facility in July 2021 and she made multiple requests for hormone therapy. In June 2022, the DOJ says she was diagnosed with gender dysphoria following an assessment by a UDOC-contracted doctor, who said she was eligible for treatment.

“People with gender dysphoria should be able to seek the full protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act, just like other people with disabilities,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a press release.

The DOJ is calling for UDOC to apply its general policy of “providing appropriate treatment and/or therapy” for all inmates, rather than having a separate policy for those with gender dysphoria.