ACLU Sues Illinois Department of Corrections on Behalf of Six Male Inmates Who Identify as Female

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois has filed a lawsuit against the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) on behalf of six male inmates who identify as female and assert that they have ben mistreated in being denied “medically necessary” hormones and/or surgery to assist with their mental health issues.

The ACLU notes in the legal challenge that the men have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and that the “‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition’ classifies gender dysphoria as a serious medical condition.”

“If not properly treated, gender dysphoria often causes anxiety, depression, substance-related disorders, self-harm, and suicide,” the organization stated.

However, the secular accepted treatment for those who suffer from gender dysphoria is to allow the person to change their “gender expression” to conform to their feelings as opposed to their birth sex, to provide “hormonal therapy,” and to accommodate various surgeries that can include changes to their chest or reproductive organs.

The ACLU therefore asserts in its legal complaint that the Illinois Department of Corrections is failing to follow the standards of care for those with gender dysphoria through its policies and procedures.

“IDOC … requires that medical care decisions for gender dysphoria be submitted to a ‘Gender Identity Disorder Committee’ (the ‘GID Committee’)—which centralizes those decisions in the hands of persons who are not specialists in the treatment of gender dysphoria and typically have never examined or even seen the persons whose course of treatment they are deciding,” the lawsuit states.

“Typically without meeting or hearing directly from the prisoner, the GID Committee provides ‘final recommendations’ for ‘hormone therapy, clothing, showers, searches,’ housing, and other accommodations. The GID Committee can, and often does, deny a prisoner hormone therapy and other necessary medical interventions despite a diagnosis of gender dysphoria…,” it contends.

The ACLU specifically argues that the IDOC has caused harm to “transgender” prisoners by either delaying or denying treatment, not permitting male prisoners who identify as female to be placed in women’s facilities, allowing strip searches by male staff, not referring to inmates by their preferred names and pronouns, and not allowing men who identify as women to wear bras or have products for facial hair removal.

“Janiah Monroe’s request for a bra and gender affirming surgery was presented to the GID Committee in February 2016. Rather than address [his] requests for medical treatment, the GID Committee decided that [his] chart should be reviewed by psychiatry to reassess [his] psychotropic medication regimen,” the legal challenge outlines as an example, stating that the six men are often treated for other mental issues outside of gender dysphoria.

The organization is therefore asking the court to judge the IDOC’s practices as being a violation of the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment,” and to order the prison system to comply with the stated standards for treatment of those with gender dysphoria.

Read the complaint in full here.

In addition to the IDOC, Gov. Bruce Rauner, Chief of Health Services Dr. Steve Meeks, Mental Health Supervisor Dr. Melvin Hinton have also been hamed in the suit. No comment had been released from the governor’s office or the IDOC as of press time.

As previously reported, Scripture states that those who turn God’s creation “upside down” are like the clay telling the potter that he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Romans 9:20 says, “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, ‘Why hast thou made me thus?’”

Isaiah 29:16 also declares, “Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay, for shall the work say of Him that made it, ‘He made me not?’ Or shall the thing framed say of Him that framed it, ‘He had no understanding?’”

Deuteronomy 22:5 further outlines, “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.”

“Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him?” 1 Corinthians 11:14 additionally notes.