Six transgender women have sued the Illinois Department of Corrections over what they say are the gross inadequacies in the medical treatment provided to prisoners with gender dysphoria, according to a press release from the ACLU of Illinois.
The lawsuit says that the plaintiffs suffer extreme harms due to the outright denial of care related to gender dysphoria, long delays in the administration of care (if it is provided at all) and systemic failure to follow prevailing medical standards for the treatment of this medical condition.
The plaintiffs do not seek damages, but want declaratory and injunctive relief. For instance, the suit wants the “Defendants and their agents, employees, officials, and all persons acting in concert with them under color of state law, to develop and implement, as soon as practical, a plan to eliminate the substantial risk of serious harm that Plaintiffs and members of the Plaintiff Class suffer due to Defendants’ inadequate evaluation and treatment of gender dysphoria.”
John Knight and Ghirlandi Guidetti of the ACLU of Illinois (along with Catherine L. Fitzpatrick, Jordan M. Heinz, Erica B. Zolner, Megan M. New and Scott Lerner of the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP) are representing the plaintiffs.
The suit—Janiah Monroe, Marilyn Melendez, Ebony Stamps, Lydia Helena Vision, Sora Kykendall, and Sasha Reed v. Bruce Rauner, John Baldwin, Steve Meeks, and Melvin Hinton—is at www.aclu-il.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/complaint_1.31.18.pdf.