California becomes the first state in the nation to agree to pay for a transgender inmate’s sex reassignment operation. But the state’s settlement of a recent court case sidesteps the question of whether such surgery is a constitutional right.
California concedes that Shiloh Quine, who entered the California prison system in 1980 as Rodney, suffers severe gender dysphoria. And that can be treated only by physically conforming her body to her psychological gender.
The agreement to settle Quine’s federal lawsuit seeking the surgery was announced late Friday, with a brief statement from the corrections department that “every medical doctor and mental health clinician who has reviewed this case, including two independent mental health experts, determined that this surgery is medically necessary for Quine.”
Quine’s victory was made possible by another inmate, Michelle Norsworthy, born as Jeffrey, who in April won a federal court order for surgery to reshape her genitals.
Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday allowed a parole grant for Norsworthy instead, making that ruling moot days before an appellate panel was to hear California’s legal challenge.
In both instances, California prison officials had denied the surgeries, arguing that sex reassignment was not medically necessary. The state’s position was undermined in June when its own expert concluded that Quine required the operation.
