JUDGE SAYS IDAHO CANNOT DELAY SEX OFFENDER INMATE'S GENDER SURGERY DURING APPEAL PROCESS
BOISE, ID - KTVB-TV reports that while the Idaho Department of Corrections appeals the ruling that would require the state to provide gender surgery to an inmate sex offender, that the department must still provide the surgery by the June 13th deadline. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill made the order Monday. Winmill is the same judge that ruled in December that Mason (Adree) Edmo would become the first Idaho inmate to receive gender confirmation surgery while in Idaho Department of Correction custody.
Judge: Idaho can't delay transgender inmate's surgery
The ruling means the original deadline of June 13 for providing the surgery remains in place.BOISE, Idaho — A federal judge says Idaho prison officials cannot delay gender confirmation surgery for a transgender inmate while they appeal the court ruling requiring them to provide the surgery.
U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill made the order Monday, saying he believed the Idaho Department of Correction's appeal in the case was likely to fail and that delaying Adree Edmo's surgery could cause her great harm. The ruling means the original June 13 deadline for providing the surgery remains in place."We'll be looking at the order and considering our next steps," Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray wrote in an email to The Associated Press. "We have nothing more to add right now."
Edmo sued for access to the surgery in 2017. She has been continually housed in a men's prison since her conviction of sexual abuse of a child in 2012, but has been living as a woman for years according to the lawsuit. She has been receiving hormone therapy while behind bars, but wrote in her lawsuit that the medication alone was not enough to treat her severe gender dysmorphia, which occurs when the incongruity between a person's assigned gender and their gender identity is so severe that it impairs their ability to function. Edmo contends she has also been barred from dressing and styling her hair in a way that reflects her gender identity.
Winmill ruled in December that the state's denial of the surgery amounted to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment, and said Edmo proved she had a serious medical need and failure to treat it would result in significant injury or unnecessary pain.
The state began the appeal process a short time later, with state officials noting that the prison's own medical professionals say surgery would be the wrong treatment for Edmo's condition and that the state shouldn't be obligated to provide a surgery to an inmate that many privately insured Idahoans can't get covered.
https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/idaho/judge-idaho-cant-delay-transgender-inmates-surgery/277-a69db1d8-821a-4403-ad85-2005466c8eb1?fbclid=IwAR21Aw1hEEpML5n430ZrJt3z3LSdm2Z9RqyvQkdp3ExzIeaO1NYZUvGXC4Y