Prisoner refused transition surgery castrates themselves

An American prisoner seeking to transition from male to female castrated themselves in a jail in Utah after they were denied access to hormone treatment.

The Department of Justice is now suing the state of Utah and its Department of Corrections for discrimination and violating the Disabilities Act.

For two years the inmate, who has not been identified, asked for access to hormones and female housing as well as the ability to purchase women’s underwear and make-up.

After being denied the accommodations, the inmate’s mental health began to decline which led to them performing the castration in May 2023.

’Dangerous self-surgery’

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

A federal investigation has now found that the state corrections department imposed “unnecessary barriers” blocking the inmate from receiving treatment for their intense gender dysphoria.

The prisoner was diagnosed with the condition following an assessment carried out by a doctor contracted by the Utah Department of Corrections in June 2022.

The doctor said they were eligible for the treatment.

However, treatment was not provided until January 2023, seven months after their assessment and 17 months after they first asked in July 2021.

The inmate is said to have been made to jump through procedural hoops that would not be required of any other medical condition, according to the Department of Justice’s investigation.

‘Failure to modify policies’

The investigation also revealed that corrections officers had purposefully delayed the hormone treatment even as the prisoner’s mental health worsened.

The Disabilities Act includes gender dysphoria as a disability, meaning that the corrections facility cannot deny appropriate care for those with the condition.

The corrections department “failed to make reasonable modifications to its policies and practices to treat the complainant’s gender dysphoria”, according to the Department of Justice.

The Department of Justice, which defines gender dystopia as “a serious medical condition” that causes “significant distress or impairment because of an incongruence between their gender identity and assigned sex”, is now demanding immediate policy changes and anti-discrimination training for all Utah corrections officers.

The state Department of Corrections will also be required to pay damages to the inmate but an amount has yet to be set.