(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Utah’s Department of Corrections after alleging that the state violated an inmate’s rights by refusing to provide treatment for gender dysphoria.
The DOJ’s lawsuit comes three weeks after federal prosecutors threatened to sue Utah if it failed to implement a raft of reforms, including new policies to ensure inmates have access to gender-related healthcare. The DOJ didn’t even wait a month after its threat to file the lawsuit.
According to the DOJ, the unnamed inmate in Utah did not receive gender dysphoria treatment for more than 15 months after requesting it. By then, the inmate had already self-mutilated, the DOJ said.
“After enduring repeated delays and denials of her requests for disability-related care and reasonable modifications, Complainant performed dangerous self-surgery and removed her own testicles,” the DOJ said, identifying the biological male as a woman.
The DOJ blamed the messy debacle on Utah’s “protracted, multistep process” to receive gender dysphoria treatment. The DOJ also noted that the inmate was denied the request to move to a female prison.
“We hope to work together with you to resolve this matter cooperatively through a court enforceable consent decree that brings UDOC into compliance with the ADA. If we are unable to reach such a resolution, the Attorney General may initiate a lawsuit,” said Rebecca Bond, the head of the DOJ’s disability rights section.
In response to the DOJ’s findings, Utah’s DOC said it was “blindsided.”
“We have been working to address this complex issue, and were blindsided by today’s public announcement from the Department of Justice. We have also taken steps on our own, and as a state, to address the needs of inmates while maintaining the highest safety standards,” said DOC Director Brian Redd in a statement.
“We fundamentally disagree with the DOJ on key issues, and are disappointed with their approach.”
The DOJ’s legal threat against Utah is its latest move in an apparent campaign to promote transgenderism in prisons.
DOJ Lawfare
In February, the DOJ filed a statement of interest in support of a lawsuit from transgender inmate Jonathan C. Richardson, who now goes by the name “Autumn Cordellionè” and is serving a 55-year sentence for killing Richardson’s infant stepdaughter.
Richardson, who identifies as an “Islamic-practicing transwoman,” first sued the Indiana Department of Correction last August in federal court after the state passed a law banning prisoners from receiving sexual reassignment surgery. The baby-killer’s lawsuit is being litigated by the American Civil Liberties Union, with the support of the DOJ, which filed a statement of interest in support of their motion to block Indiana’s law.
While Richardson’s lawsuit didn’t involve any removal of testicles, the inmate did disclose that “I have soiled myself rather than go to the bathroom, as I just do not want to see or deal with my genitals.”
The DOJ’s support of Richardson follows a similar move in Georgia, where prosecutors filed a brief in January to support a lawsuit filed by an unnamed inmate against the Georgia Department of Corrections. Details of the inmate’s crimes weren’t included in the filing.
Additionally, the DOJ settled a lawsuit last June from a federal inmate—former Neo-Nazi bank robber Pete/Donna Langan—who sued the Bureau of Prisons in late 2021 to obtain a sex change. Langan became the first federal inmate in history to receive a sex change in January 2023, but continued to sue the BOP to also cover facial hair removal surgery.
The details of Langan’s settlement have not been made public.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
