A federal court has ruled that the Americans With Disabilities Act protects trans-identified individuals and that a prison policy requiring inmates to be housed based on their biological sex, specifically their external genitalia, violates federal law.
In a 2-1 ruling published Tuesday, the 4th U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling asserting that the Americans With Disabilities Act does not apply to trans-identified people.
According to the Christian Post, Judge Diana Gribbon Motz, appointed to the bench by former President Bill Clinton, delivered the court’s opinion. The issue will go back to the district court “for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
The ruling stems from a trans-identified male filing a lawsuit against the Sheriff of Fairfax County, Virginia, as well as a nurse at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center and a deputy at the prison, alleging discrimination and harassment after having spent six months incarcerated in men’s housing at the facility.
Kesha Williams contends that gender dysphoria — persistent discomfort with one’s biological sex — constitutes “a disability suffered by many (but certainly not all) transgender people.”
Williams sued Nurse Xin Wang, who performed a “preliminary medical evaluation” on the plaintiff at the beginning of the six-month prison sentence and labeled Williams as “male” upon discovering the presence of male genitalia even though Williams “for fifteen years had received hormone medical treatment for … gender dysphoria.”
Prison policy required that “[m]ale inmates be classified as such if they have male genitals” and “[f]emale inmates be classified as such if they have female genitals.”
In her opinion, Motz maintained that this policy “violates federal law.” She cited it as a violation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The law mandates prison officials to “consider on a case-by-case basis whether placement would ensure the inmate’s health and safety, and whether the placement would present management or security problems” when “deciding whether to assign a transgender or intersex inmate to a facility for male or female inmates.”
Williams maintains that Wang failed to fill a request for “prescribed hormone medication for gender dysphoria” promptly, resulting in “experiencing significant mental and emotional distress.” The opinion states that while Williams was housed on the men’s side of the prison, prison deputies “repeatedly harassed [him] regarding [his] sex and gender identity.”
