Transgender inmates in the U.S. state of Georgia have launched a legal challenge against new legislation that strips them of access to gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy, while in custody.
The lawsuit, filed on Friday, targets Senate Bill 185 (SB185), which Governor Brian Kemp signed in May and the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) adopted last month. The law prohibits state funds or resources from being used for medically necessary hormone therapy for prisoners diagnosed with gender dysphoria — care that doctors, judges, and even the GDC had previously recognised as essential.
Under the order, trans inmates are forced to de-transition, while other prisoners who are not transgender can still access similar treatments, such as hormone therapy, for other medical conditions. Plaintiffs argue this violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause and the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
There are an estimated 300 transgender inmates in Georgia’s state prisons.
“I’m bringing this lawsuit because trans people in GDC custody need an advocate, and I know there are people who will take their lives if this law is not blocked,” said lead plaintiff Isis Benjamin.
The law also bans incarcerated trans individuals from paying for their own gender-affirming treatments. Staff Attorney Celine Zhu, from the Centre for Constitutional Rights, which is representing Benjamin and four others, likened the restriction to denying a diabetic prisoner insulin.
“Lawmakers can’t be permitted to override the judgment of leading medical authorities and prison doctors, and disregard constitutional protections, simply because it applies to the treatment of gender dysphoria. Then we’re just state-sanctioning prejudice, with irreversible and fatal consequences,” Zhu stated.
For more than a decade prior to SB185, the GDC recognised that prisoners diagnosed with gender dysphoria were entitled to “constitutionally appropriate” care, including hormone therapy. Medical experts widely agree such treatment is safe, essential, and beneficial to mental and physical health.
All plaintiffs in the case have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and either receive, or are seeking, hormone therapy and surgery. One plaintiff, Ms Horton, a trans woman incarcerated at Phillips State Prison, had been on hormone therapy since 2019 until July 8, when she was told it would be stopped. The treatment ended immediately, leaving her at risk of severe mental health decline — something she had previously experienced after a week-long interruption in her therapy.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Atlanta, accuses four GDC officials of “deliberate indifference” to the medical needs of those in their custody. It seeks an injunction to block SB185 and a declaration that it is unconstitutional.
Lawyers point to a similar case in Wisconsin, where a comparable ban was overturned in 2005 when a federal court ruled that denying gender-affirming care to prisoners amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.
