I saw this today and remembered this thread. While
this inmates reason doesn't seem to be rape, it still brings up the question of state funding for gender reassignment/ corrective surgery.
It seems ( from this very brief article) that the prison system is trying to work with her, regarding pronoun usage and attire, however, I doubt that funding for her surgery is going to come from any Virginia budget.
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Wednesday June 08, 2011
Inmate Ophelia De’lonta filed a federal lawsuit requesting the state provide her the medical care necessary to complete her sex change. While in the all-male Buckingham Correctional Center, De’lonta has been self mutilating in an attempt to remove her male genitalia.
According to the Associated Press, if she wins, she will be the first inmate to receive a state-funded sex change operations. Similar lawsuits in other states have not passed and lawmakers are working to ban taxpayer money to fund these operations.
“The notion that taxpayers are going to fund a sex change is just ridiculous,” Del. Todd Gilbert said in the article – he will seek legislation if De’lonta wins the lawsuit.
If she loses, De’lonta says she will continue trying to remove her parts and acknowledges that it could kill her, but she says she wants to be at piece.
The prison has made special allowances for feminine clothing and therapy.
More from the Associate Press:
The hormones and other treatments had kept her urges in check for years. She snapped Oct. 8 when an officer used a male pronoun toward her, despite a court order that prison workers refer to her as a woman.
“I screamed ‘She, damnit!’ becoming so overwhelmed it was hard to breathe,” De’lonta said.
Looking down, she felt repulsed and helpless. She cried herself to sleep, then hours later she prepared for her surgery attempt by covering her cell door’s window with paper and putting towels around the commode.
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