A 52-year-old inmate in Massachusetts who has only be identified as “Jane Doe” filed a federal lawsuit to get moved to a women’s facility.
In her complaint, she said that she has been forced to undress in front of male prisoners, who make inappropriate comments about her. Other inmates crowd into the showers when she is there to look at her, and several inmates have tried to rape her.
She said that she has also been assaulted by male guards “who routinely grope her breasts” while searching her.
“She is often afraid to leave her cell for fear of harassment and violence from DOC prisoners, staff and correctional officers,” her complaint says.
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Doe said that she has been receiving hormone replacement therapy for decades and has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
She has requested a move to a women’s facility, but she was told that she would have to have bottom surgery first. Other states, like California and Pennsylvania, house inmates according to their gender identity, not their genitalia.
“She shouldn’t be punished for being transgender and that’s what’s happening here,” Jennifer Levi of GLAD, who is representing her, said in a statement.
The inmate is serving three-to-four years for a nonviolent drug offense.
