California inmates who say they are transgender have gobbled up more than $4 million of taxpayer funds over the past six years for sex changes and other procedures, according to a new report.
In 2017, California began giving prisoners who say that they are transgender whatever so-called “gender-affirming care” they want, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
As a result, 157 inmates — including four prisoners on death row — have had various procedures performed, including breast implants and laser hair removal, it reported.
The Integrated Gender Affirming Healthcare Program sought a 2023-2024 budget increase of $2,187,000, according to state records.
The money was to fund two clinical social workers, a health program specialist, a nursing consultant, two senior psychiatrists and a full-time doctor and surgeon.
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Attorney Harmeet Dhillon, who has represented inmates seeking basic care, questions the program, according to the Free Beacon
“People who think they’re transgender have rights, and they should be treated with dignity and respect, but it does not include taxpayer dollars being used to do surgeries that are experimental at best and scientifically unjustified at worst,” Dhillon said.
The Free Beacon report said prison rules in California do not provide root canals for back teeth, cosmetic restoration or replacement of teeth or even treatment of oral ulcers.
However, based on records the Free Beason said it reviewed, between 2017 and July 2023, the programs funded at least 157 procedures that included $2.5 million on vaginoplasties, which involve creating artificial vaginas – for 35 men.
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Breast implants on 11 men have cost more than $180,000, while $184,141 was spent on facial feminization surgeries for two guys.
Forty women in prison have had breast removal surgery, which set the state back more than $1 million.
The Free Beacon report said more than 1,000 inmates have requests pending for transgender treatments and that 1,847 inmates say they are transgender.
California began to shower medical treatments on transgender prisoners after it lost a 2016 court case in which a prisoner convicted of murder sought special privileges for transgender inmates. In 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 132 into law to support increased care for transgender inmates.
Transgender inmates can seek transfers to the prison housing the gender with which they identify.
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That has led to 47 men transferring to female prisons since 2021, the Washington Free Beacon reported in January.
Inmate Krystal Gonzalez is suing to overturn that policy, saying she was sexually abused by a man who said he was female, and that guards referred to the perpetrator as a “transgender woman with a penis.”
“This worsens my distress because I do not believe they can really evaluate my grievance if they are pretending that women can have penises,” Gonzalez said. “This man violated me, and when the prison tries to tell me it was a woman, I feel violated again.”
