Dist. Ct. erred in denying defendants-prison officials’ motion for summary judgment alleging that they were entitled to qualified immunity in plaintiff-transgender prisoner’s section 1983 action alleging that defendants’ denial of plaintiff’s repeated requests for sex-reassignment surgery instead of defendant providing cross-gender hormone treatment violated her 8th Amendment rights because defendants were deliberately indifferent to her serious medical needs. Plaintiff failed to provide any case law that warned defendants that treating inmates’ gender dysphoria with hormone therapy and deferring consideration of sex-reassignment surgery violated Constitution. As such, defendants were immune from liability. Ct. further noted that it was doubtful that plaintiff could establish case of deliberate indifference, where defendants followed accepted medical standards that recommended that individuals such as plaintiff undergo “real life” experiences as person of their self-identified gender for one year before resorting to irreversible surgical options. (Dissent filed.)
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Qualified Immunity