Transgender prisoner sues for sex change to save him from rape

A transgender inmate at a California prison has filed a lawsuit asking the state to pay for a sex-change operation, in order to protect him from rape and attack by male inmates. Lyralisa Stevens, who was born male but lives as a female, said in a suit filed in San Francisco's 1st District Court that the removal of her male genitalia and subsequent transfer to a female prison were neccesary to save him from the threat of harm.

Stevens has received female hormones from the state since being incarcerated in 2003. He also entered prison with silicon breast and hip implants. But the 42-year-old, who is serving 50 years to life for killing a woman with a shotgun in a dispute over clothes, argued in the suit that hormone treatment is no longer adequate to combat his emotional distress.



In supporting documents, psychotherapist Lin Fraser - referring to Stevens as "her" - said she held "grave concerns" for Stevens' safety because the inmate "had been put alone in cells all night long with men who threatened and abused her." A study commissioned in the mid-2000s by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and conducted by the University of California Irvine found that transgender inmates were 13 times more likely to suffer sexual assault than other prisoners.

If Stevens' case is succesful, California will become the first US state required to provide gender reassignment surgery for inmates who demonstrate a pressing need. A federal court decision handed down in 1999 already requires prisons to provide hormone drugs to transgender patients if they were taking them before coming to prison.

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