Self-castrating
inmate sues for hormone therapy

An Idaho inmate who identifies as a transgender woman--and who performed a self-castration while in prison--is suing the state federal court to get female hormone therapy to treat her gender identity disorder, reports the Associated Press.

Jenniffer Spencer, born Randall Gammett, claims the Idaho Department of Correction is violating her constitutional right to proper health care and subjecting her to cruel and unusual punishment by failing to diagnose her gender identity disorder and give her access to the female hormone estrogen. She performed her own castration using a disposable razor blade in her prison cell.

According to the Associated Press, the state's attorneys argue that prison doctors did not find substantial evidence that Spencer had gender identity disorder. After her castration Spencer was given an option to undergo male hormone therapy, which she refused.

While a trial will not happen for several months, Judge Mikel Williams told the Associated Press that he would decide whether Spencer should be provided estrogen therapy pending trial.

Spencer was incarcerated in May 2000 for possession of a stolen car. She was sent to the boot camp prison program at Cottonwood, but after an escape attempt was sentenced to 10 years for both the original crime and the failed breakout. At the time she was still using her male identity.

According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit claims that Spencer lived full-time as a woman and took birth control pills in an attempt to develop female secondary sex traits prior to her incarceration. Yet she failed to report her gender identity disorder to the Idaho Department of Correction until September 2003, when she learned of state-sponsored treatment for transgender inmates.

Despite repeated requests for treatment--75 in total, according to Spencer--the department refused her. Instead she was diagnosed with a nonspecific gender disorder, and later as bipolar, reports the Associated Press. In August 2004 Spencer attempted suicide.

When prison officials continued to refuse treatment, Spencer attempted self-castration in October 2004. According to her statement, she tried again 10 days later and succeeded.

According to the Associated Press, prison guards found a note that read: "I cut my genitals off do [sic] to the facts that I am a transgendered individual and I could stand the sight of them no more. This is not a suicide attempt. This is simply a way for me to remmady [sic] my problem."

After the attempted castration, prison doctors diagnosed her with hypogonadism, a medical condition that can lead to osteoporosis, loss of muscle mass, and other problems if left untreated. Spencer was prescribed testosterone, which she refused to take.

Her lawyers claim that Spencer has suffered irreparable damage due to a lack of estrogen therapy. Attempting to give someone in her condition testosterone is "medically indefensible," Spencer's attorney James Schurz said to the Associated Press.

Yet John Burke, one of the lawyers representing the state, told the Associated Press that the case boils down to a simple difference of medical opinion. It is not a matter of discrimination, as Spencer claims; of the seven inmates who have filed for hormone therapy in the state of Idaho, only two--Spencer included--have been refused. (The Advocate)