Prison Must Provide Trans Inmate Gender Confirmation Surgery

Idaho prison officials violated a transgender prisoner’s constitutional rights by failing to provide her gender confirmation surgery, the Ninth Circuit ruled Aug. 23.

When the medically necessary treatment for a prisoner’s gender dysphoria is gender confirmation surgery, and prison officials refuse to provide it, knowing of the prisoner’s suffering, they violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, the court said, ruling on an issue of first impression.

The decision conflicts with a Fifth Circuit ruling issued earlier this year that denying GCS can’t violate the Eighth Amendment.

The state must take steps within its power to provide ...