A federal judge in Illinois has ruled that a man going by the name Cristina Nichole Iglesias, who has been incarcerated for 28 years, should received gender-reassignment surgery and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has to find the surgeon.
Nancy Rosenstengel, chief judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois and a Barack Obama appointee, ruled earlier this week that the United States Bureau of Prisons (BOP) needs to provide Iglesias with a “qualified surgeon” to perform the surgery.
CNN reported on the case:
Earlier in the case, the district court had ordered the BOP to evaluate Iglesias for gender-affirming surgery, but the BOP sought to postpone any referral to a surgeon for months, court records show. The BOP “employed tactics similar to the game of Plinko on The Price is Right,” Chief Judge Nancy Rosenstengel said in Monday’s ruling, comparing their tactics to a game of “whack-a-mole.”
This week’s order from the court now requires the BOP to provide a detailed timeline for Iglesias’s surgery, including providing the court with a list of all surgeons within the United States who are qualified to perform gender-affirming surgery, the ruling states.
According to the ACLU, while the BOP has more than 1,200 transgender people currently in its custody, Iglesias is now expected to be the first federal prisoner to ever receive gender-affirming surgery.
“I am hopeful that I will finally get the care I need to live my life fully as the woman I am,” Iglesias said in a statement posted on the ACLU of Illinois website. “BOP has denied me gender-affirming surgery for years — and keeps raising new excuses and putting new obstacles in my way. I am grateful that the court recognized the urgency of my case and ordered BOP to act.”
“For years, Cristina has fought to receive the health care the Constitution requires. The court’s order makes clear that she needs gender-affirming surgery now and that BOP cannot justify its failure to provide this medically necessary care,” Joshua Blecher-Cohen, an ACLU of Illinois staff attorney who represents Iglesias, said in a press release on the case. “We hope this landmark decision will help secure long overdue health care for Cristina – and for the many other transgender people in federal custody who have been denied gender-affirming care.”
CNN reported that according to the ACLU Iglesias is currently housed in a BOP residential reentry center in Florida.
The case is Iglesias v. Connors, No. 19-00415 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.
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