Manning's request may be the first time this has come up for a military prisoner.īut a large question remains among many critics outside the advocacy circuit: Should prisons be doling out sex-change drugs? Transgender groups consider denying hormones in cases like Manning's "cruel and unusual punishment" and argue that hormone treatment for gender identity disorder is standard medicine and should be allowed in military prisons as in federal prisons. So people with no expertise, including prison staff, often reject the seriousness of the underlying medical condition just because of bias and discrimination," Levi said. "The reality is, the underlying medical condition of gender dysphoria is highly stigmatized and widely misunderstood. In one case Kohler followed, an inmate sliced off his penis and testicles while serving in a prison in another state after being transferred to California, that inmate was placed in a women's correctional facility. "When they're off (hormones), people say they don’t feel right, they feel terrible." "Withdrawing from estrogen can cause significant depression and a general mood disorder, much like what many women experience with menopause," Kohler said. The vast majority of those 400 were born as males and want to become females, taking estrogen and growing female curves while housed in men's prisons. In California, Kohler has helped oversee hormone meds for about 400 inmates (out of a total population of 150,000). Lori Kohler, a staff physician for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and a national expert on medical management of transgender prisoners. About 30 such self-mutilations have been documented in U.S. You don’t know who you are anymore," added Major, who today lives in Oakland, Calif., and advocates for transgender people, including ex-inmates.Īlready battling a deep disconnect with self-identity, then suddenly being removed from the medications meant to alter their genders, some inmates literally attack the issue in the bloodiest ways, lopping off their sex organs. You have no control over what’s happening to you. "It’s like a roller coaster ride without anything to hang on to. Housed in isolation, and without the drugs, her breasts grew smaller, manly hair again coated her arms and legs, and her emotions ran wild. Major had started taking the pills years before to look like the woman she always felt she was internally. "You begin to feel like you might as well just die," said Miss Major, 70, who claims her estrogen prescription was withheld by the medical staff during a five-year stint at a New York prison for a prostitution conviction. At the very least, this significantly delays Manning's plan to physically morph into "Chelsea" - as he's been sentenced to 35 years in Fort Leavenworth prison. The Army does not provide hormone therapy to such prisoners. Thursday's revelation that convicted secret leaker Bradley Manning wants to live as a woman and begin hormone therapy ignited talk about what happens when prison doctors refuse hormones to inmates with gender identity disorder (GID): depression, death wishes, purposely amputated genitalia and, for those already en route to a new gender, the return or disappearance of certain male or female traits - from body hair to muscles to breasts.
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