In a first, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has been ordered to secure gender-affirming surgery for a transgender prisoner. A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois ordered the bureau on Monday to undergo a nationwide search for a qualified surgeon to perform the surgery for the inmate, Cristina Nichole Iglesias.
The directive will bring Iglesias — who has been imprisoned since 1994 for threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction — a step closer to receiving the procedure, which she has been fighting to get for six years, the last three in the courts.
“I am hopeful that I will finally get the care I need to live my life fully as the woman I am,” Iglesias said in a statement provided to NBC News by her legal representative, the American Civil Liberties Union. “BOP has denied me gender-affirming surgery for years — and keeps raising new excuses and putting new obstacles in my way. I am grateful that the court recognized the urgency of my case and ordered BOP to act.”
“This is something that’s long overdue,” said Alexis Rangel, policy counsel for the National Center for Transgender Equality, based in Washington, D.C. “We recognize that trans folks who are incarcerated have a fundamental right to appropriate care, and they shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to access that care while on the inside.”
Gender-affirming care, particularly in regard to youth, has been increasingly under attack by lawmakers out of concern that young people might make life-altering decisions they might come to regret. Federal prisons are required to cover the costs of all necessary health care treatments for inmates under the U.S. Constitution.
According to USA Today, Joshua Blecher-Cohen, an ACLU of Illinois staff attorney who represents Iglesias, said the directive represents “a real first step” toward Iglesias’ finally getting gender-affirming surgery.
“This case has been full of delays and denials, as this opinion recognizes,” Blecher-Cohen said. “We are excited, but there is more work to be done toward actually making this happen.”
In her order, U.S. District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel of Illinois’ Southern District ordered the prisons bureau to conduct an immediate nationwide search for a qualified surgeon while providing detailed evidence of its efforts.
