Georgia Ordered To Continue Hormone Therapy For Transgender Inmates

U.S. District Judge Victoria Marie Calvert last week ruled that a new state law denying hormone therapy to inmates violated their protection against cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge has permanently ordered Georgia’s prison system to keep providing some kinds of gender-affirming care for transgender prisoners, although the state plans to appeal.

U.S. District Judge Victoria Marie Calvert last week ruled that a new state law denying hormone therapy to inmates violated their protection against cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. She ordered the state to keep providing hormones to inmates who had been receiving therapy and to allow others medically diagnosed as needing hormone therapy to begin receiving treatment.

“The court finds that there is no genuine dispute of fact that gender dysphoria is a serious medical need,” Calvert wrote in her order. “Plaintiffs, through their experts, have presented evidence that a blanket ban on hormone therapy constitutes grossly inadequate care for gender dysphoria and risks imminent injury.”

Calvert had already issued a preliminary order in September blocking the law before finalizing it.

It is the latest turn in legal battles over federal and state efforts to regulate the lives of transgender people, including which sports competitions they can join and which bathrooms they can use. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors. President Donald Trump’s administration in April sued Maine for not complying with the government’s push to ban transgender athletes in girls sports.