A federal court has struck down a Missouri Department of Corrections policy that bars transgender inmates from receiving transition-related health care treatments.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Noelle C. Collins declared the Department of Corrections’ “freeze-frame” policy unconstitutional, finding that it violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishment” because it denies health care to transgender inmates unless they had previously been receiving treatment prior to their incarceration.
Jessica Hicklin, a transgender woman incarcerated at the Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point, Mo., sued over the policy, saying she was denied the right to receive hormones, body hair removal treatments, and access to “gender-affirming” canteen items.
In February, Collins issued a preliminary injunction to stop the prison from enforcing its “freeze-frame” policy and allow Hicklin to access those treatments, which are recommended as medically necessary to help treat Hicklin’s gender dysphoria.
Collins also issued an order permanently barring the Missouri Department of Corrections, and Corizon LLC, its contracted health care provider, from refusing medically necessary treatment like hormones to transgender inmates across the state.
Lambda Legal, which is representing Hicklin in the case, celebrated the court’s decision, noting that it would spare her significant “pain and anguish,” and would also protect other inmates from discrimination.
“To keep life-saving treatment from transgender people suffering needlessly in prison simply because they were not receiving that treatment before they entered the facility is cruel and unlawful,” Demoya Gordon, an attorney with Lambda Legal’s Transgender Rights Project, said in a statement. “This is the first court in the country that we know of to rule specifically that ‘freeze-frame policies’ are unconstitutional, but we are hopeful that other courts will see these discriminatory policies as deliberate indifference to incarcerated transgender people’s serious medical needs and follow suit.”
Hicklin also celebrated the victory, which ensures she’ll be treated according to her gender identity going forward.
“For years, I felt like I had been drowning,” she said in a statement. “But when the first decision came down in February, I could finally breathe knowing I would be able to start an important part of my transition that I had been waiting for desperately. This final decision makes it unquestionably clear that prisons cannot deny transgender people like me life-saving medical care and that MDOC and Corizon must continue to provide the gender dysphoria treatment I need.”
Two West Virginia bills aimed at protecting minors from "obscene" performances and materials could end up penalizing transgender visibility under the bills' definition of what constitutes "sexually explicit" matter.
The bills, introduced by State Sen. Michael Azinger (R-Vienna), seek to prohibit obscene or sexually explicit materials in or within 2,500 feet of schools and would bar minors from being present for obscene performances or displays.
Both bills define "obscene matter" as material that appeals to the prurient interest, that depicts or describes sexually explicit conduct, or lacks "serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value," in keeping with common elements of obscenity laws.
The World Boxing Council, one of four major organizations that sanction professional boxing matches, plans to launch a separate category dedicated to transgender fighters over safety concerns.
WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman told the British newspaper The Telegraph in an interview published on Dec. 29 that the new category is being proposed to ensure "the dangers of a man fighting a woman will never happen."
"We will not allow -- ever -- a transgender born a man to fight a woman, who was born a woman," he said, referring to concerns over greater physical strength and physiological advantages that transgender women enjoy over cisgender females.
Community members rallied on Monday afternoon to remember a transgender woman who died after being stabbed earlier this month in Northeast D.C.
A group consisting of friends, family, and fellow D.C. residents gathered at the corner of Gallaudet Street NE and Providence Street NE, in the Ivy City neighborhood, to remember Jasmine Starr Parker, who was 36 when she was murdered on Jan. 7.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, police were flagged down in the 2000 block of Gallaudet Street NE, in between Gallaudet University's campus and Mt. Olivet Cemetery around 3 a.m. on Jan. 7. Upon arriving on scene, they found Parker on the ground, unresponsive, suffering from a stab wound to her leg. Parker was declared dead at the scene.
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