COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal judge has ordered Ohio’s prisons agency to restore hormone treatments for a transgender inmate who sued after they were stopped.
In her complaint, inmate Whitney Lee says she experienced a medical setback and depression after prison officials abruptly stopped the treatments in February 2012.
Judge Algenon Marbley ruled Wednesday the state’s actions have harmed and injured Lee and it must immediately resume her estrogen treatment.
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The state argues Lee’s case should have been dismissed because she didn’t exhaust the administrative grievance process first.
Court filings say the 36-year-old Lee has undergone continuous hormone therapy since 1999.
Lee is housed with male inmates in Mansfield Correctional Institution. She’s serving a three-year sentence on forgery and theft charges out of Hamilton County.
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