News Item
"Indian Country Today" featured Elisabeth Haub School of Law's Professor Michael Mushlin in "Court Rules Transgender Inmate Court rules Transgender Inmate and Shoshone-Bannock Citizen Needs Sex Reassignment Surgery"
The 9th Circuit ruling establishes an important standard for transgender inmates, but it doesn’t mean that the Idaho Department of Correction — or any prison — will have to provide gender confirmation surgery to all transgender inmates. However, it could make it easier for inmates to access the treatment when there’s a clear medical need.
Michael Mushlin, professor of law at the Elizabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, said this opinion means that prisons need to take the medical needs of transgender prisoners seriously.
“That doesn't mean everyone is entitled to this surgery, but it means that you just can't say, ‘Well this person is transgender and is requesting the surgery and we're just not going to make that available,’ anymore than you can say to someone who has cancer, ‘Look we're not going to give you chemotherapy,’” Mushlin said.
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