Lawsuit asks state to pay for inmate's sex-change operation

[The Northerner]

Lyralisa Stevens says she is harassed and sexually assaulted by male prisoners, and needs surgery to be assigned to a women's prison. State officials say they aren't required to provide that level of care.

Reporting from Vacaville — Lyralisa Stevens, who was born male but lives as a female, is serving 50 years to life in a California prison for killing a San Bernardino County woman with a shotgun in a dispute over clothes.

Stevens is one of more than 300 inmates in the state prison system diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder, a psychiatric condition addressed in free society with hormone replacement therapy and, in some cases, sex reassignment surgery.

Prison officials have provided female hormones for Stevens since her incarceration in 2003. But now she is asking the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco to require the state to pay for a sex-change operation.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-prisons-transgender-20110420,0,57568.story

[RZM]

1. How about starting with actually protecting weaker inmates from the predators

It's a shame what goes on in our prisons. While I do place blame for it on the sociopaths and gangs that prey on other inmates, it's the state's job to protect those under its care.

[Deep13]

4. But how will we terrorize people into compliance...

...if they are not scared of being raped in prison?

:sarcasm:

[blm]

2. Bailed-out CEOs get higher bonuses, more tax breaks to pay for 3rd home and 5th mistress' boob job.

"Oh look.....the gays want special treatment."

It's the Republican Way.

[readmoreoften]

3. It's a medical treatment that would be provided in most modern countries.

But our country sexualizes transgendered people so it will probably be compared to plastic surgery and wearing Juicy couture or penis enlargement. Inevitably someone will bring up a Republican skreech with the initials A.C. And this is the Democratic forum.

[Deep13]

5. I'm stumped. What's A.C? *EDIT*

:shrug:

Nevermind, I just figured it out. I'm a little slow sometimes.

[Shandris]

6. MSNBC's Lock Up had something similar to this last weekend.

The police officer -- and I'm sorry, it was primarily background noise so I don't remember what state it was in -- said that for purposes of classification of transgendered people, the law only matters from a STRICTLY biological point of view at the time they enter the prison sentence and they are under no further obligation to change it afterward.

Meaning, of course, that even if this person DID finish the procedure, she'd still be in a men's prison.

I remember a Law & Order show several years back with the same topic. It was probably one of the most disturbing ones I'd ever watched, if not ~the~ most disturbing.

[alp227]

7. how about solitary? n/t