Trump-appointed judge refuses to block red state ban on sex changes for inmates

A federal district court judge on Friday declined to block enforcement of a Florida Department of Corrections policy banning most sex change treatments and social transitions for prison inmates.

Reiyn Keohane, a male inmate who has been receiving cross-sex hormones and social accommodations in a Florida prison, requested a preliminary injunction against the rule, claiming it violated the Eighth Amendment right to medically necessary care, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Judge Allen Winsor, appointed by then-President Donald Trump in 2019, rejected the request and stated in the ruling that denying social accommodations — such as allowing male inmates to wear opposite-sex clothing — does not violate the Constitution, nor does the state’s policy as a whole since it allows for exceptions to be made on a case-by-case basis.

“The record indicates Keohane receives extensive medical treatment relating to gender dysphoria,” Winsor wrote in the decision. “In addition to the hormone treatment currently provided, the Department makes psychotherapy available to those with gender dysphoria. This is not a case in which the Department simply provides no treatment at all.”

Under the policy change issued in September, the Florida Department of Corrections no longer allows inmates to obtain cross-sex hormones, wear clothes intended for the opposite sex, or keep their hair longer than male grooming standards. The rule does allow for exceptions on a case-by-case basis if deemed “medically necessary” by a medical professional.

Winsor also stated that Keohane failed to prove transgender treatments were medically necessary, according to the ruling.

Keohane is currently serving a 15-year sentence for attempted murder, according to previous court documents.

“Florida officials are waging a baseless campaign to dehumanize and degrade incarcerated people like our client,” Li Nowlin-Sohl, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s LGBTQ + HIV Project, said in a statement. “Allowing this policy to move forward threatens the basic human rights of transgender people in the state’s custody and the court’s order today affords the state’s policy more credulity than it deserves when the clear intent of the state is to ban this health care outright.”

Florida has taken a vastly different approach to transgender-identifying inmates than states like California, which has provided transgender surgeries for inmates since 2017 and has spent over $4 million of taxpayer funds on the procedures for over 100 inmates as of 2023, including death row prisoners, according to the California Family Council. Sex-change operation requests from prisoners have skyrocketed in the state, with an increasing amount projected to be performed every year.

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