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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp being interviewed by the press after a legislative breakfast, February 2024
The state's abysmal treatment of incarcerated trans people was the subject of a scathing Department of Justice report last year that was withdrawn last month by the Trump administration.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law a contentious bill that prohibits the use of state funds for gender-affirming care for nearly all transgender inmates housed in the state’s correctional facilities.
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Kemp, a Republican, signed Senate Bill 185 at a ceremony Thursday. SB 185 amends existing law and immediately bans funding for almost all forms of gender-affirming care for incarcerated trans individuals housed by the Georgia Department of Corrections. Excluded procedures under the new law include gender-affirming surgeries, hormone therapies, and cosmetic alterations of sexual characteristics.
Related: Georgia State Prisons houses LGBTQ+ inmates in horrific conditions new DOJ report finds
The bill was passed by the Senate 37 to 15 in March. Democrats in the state’s House of Representatives staged a walkout when the bill came up for a vote last month, but it still passed by a vote of 100 to 2.
“Taxpayer dollars should not be used for procedures like this, and this legislation codifies that common-sense step,” Kemp said at a press conference following the signing, local CBS affiliate WMAZ reports.
During the walkout, Democratic state Rep. Carolyn Hugley decried the bill as dangerous and unnecessary political theater.
“We came here to focus on the opportunity for Georgians to live, learn, and earn,” Hugley told TV station WANF in April. “And what do we get? Political theater. Bills that want to legalize discrimination. A whole lot of nothing.”
REPORT: DOJ withdraws support for transgender prisoner
Last year, the Department of Justice issued a scathing report on Georgia and its Department of Corrections about the state’s reported mistreatment of transgender inmates. The 93-page report found that confinement conditions in the state’s prison system violate the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, banning cruel and unusual punishment.
The report also revealed reported cases of violence that were closed by state officials without any corrective action. These include rape at knifepoint and the threat of violence, severe sexual assault, beatings, and confinement without food as well as indifference from prison officials.
“Our findings report lays bare the horrific and inhumane conditions that people are confined to inside Georgia’s state prison system,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement at the time. “Our statewide investigation exposes long-standing, systemic violations stemming from complete indifference and disregard to the safety and security of people Georgia holds in its prisons.”
RELATED: Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signs transphobic trans student-athlete bill
But the new Trump administration has brought a new mindset to the DOJ.
Last month, the DOJ officially withdrew a statement of interest supporting the attempts by a transgender woman inmate to obtain gender-affirming care and surgery while incarcerated in Georgia. The DOJ under President Joe Biden issued the statement last year, saying the GDC had violated the Americans With Disabilities Act as well as the incarcerated trans woman’s constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment.
“Because of the inadequate care and exacerbation of her gender dysphoria, Doe has engaged in repeated self-harm, including attempts at suicide and self-castration,” the DOJ said in a press release at the time. In the suit, the trans inmate seeks access to gender-affirming care, plus transfer to a women’s prison.
The new law banning gender-affirming care for transgender inmates in the state took effect immediately once it was signed by Kemp.
