SALT LAKE CITY — Five transgender inmates at the Utah State Prison are suing the state for allegedly preventing them from receiving needed hormone therapy.
Virginia Tucker, Stephanie Dombroski, Sandy Phillips, Dakota Grunwald and Amberli K. Morrigan filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in federal court against the Department of Corrections and the Department of Health and Human Service and some of the top administrators from each department.
The state has failed to provide the inmates “with medically necessary care for their gender dysphoria, specifically in denying them individualized assessments and necessary treatments in accordance with clinical guidelines,” according to the lawsuit.
“When left untreated or inadequately treated, gender dysphoria can cause debilitating distress, depression, impairment of function, risk of self-harm to alter one’s genitals or secondary sex characteristics, other self-injurious behaviors, suicidality, suicide and death,” the lawsuit continues. Gender dysphoria is a “serious medical condition,” the inmates say.
The inmates say that since HB252 went into effect in May, the “denial of adequate and medically necessary treatment for gender dysphoria increased in severity.”
Utah lawmakers passed HB252 earlier this year, which restricts the care transgender inmates can receive. Specifically, inmates aren’t able to initiate gender-related surgeries or hormone treatment while in prison. The bill also forces inmates to be housed in facilities matching their biological sex.
According to the lawsuit, the bill bans transgender inmates “from receiving medically necessary and potentially lifesaving treatment for gender dysphoria and overrules the professional judgment of (the inmates’) own medical providers. (The bill) denies care by prohibiting the initiation of medical treatment for gender dysphoria. It limits treatment to mental health services, which on its own is an inadequate means of treating gender dysphoria and contrary to accepted medical standards of care.”
The lawsuit contends that the Corrections and Health and Human Services departments “have implemented a blanket ban on the initiation of hormone therapy without any consideration of (the inmates’) individualized medical needs and the medical judgment of (their) own medical providers.”
Four of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are transgender women and one is a transgender man.
Grunwald has been incarcerated the longest of the five plaintiffs. Grunwald was convicted of manslaughter in the death of Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Cory Wride. The inmate was convicted as Meagan Dakota Grunwald. During a parole hearing on Tuesday — coincidently the day the lawsuit was filed — Grunwald requested to be addressed by the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole as Dakota or just Grunwald.
Morrigan has previously filed a complaint with the U.S. Justice Department, leading to the DOJ filing a lawsuit against the Utah Department of Corrections.
However, “since the issuance of the DOJ letter of findings and the related lawsuit, neither UDC nor DHHS has engaged in any corrective action or addressed the American with Disabilities Act violations found by DOJ,” according to the inmates’ new civil suit.
Furthermore, since HB252 went into effect in May, the state has “refused to initiate hormone therapy for any incarcerated person with gender dysphoria,” the lawsuit states.
“Even though proper diagnoses and effective treatments of gender dysphoria are well-understood among qualified medical professionals, defendants have adopted policies, procedures and practices that deny plaintiffs meaningful equal access to health care for their disability of gender dysphoria.”
The inmates are claiming discrimination by the state on the basis of having a disability, and their Eighth Amendment rights prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment were violated.
In a statement to KSL, the Department of Corrections responded to the lawsuit by saying, “The Utah Department of Corrections is committed to providing appropriate medical and mental health care for all residents, including transgender inmates. We look forward to vigorously defending our high standard of care and full compliance with federal and state laws against this lawsuit.”
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