Transgender inmate latest to push for hormone treatment

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A transgender inmate is suing the Missouri prison system for refusing to provide hormone therapy as she transitions to a woman, adding her voice to those of prisoners in other states who argue that denying such treatment amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit in federal court in St. Louis last week on behalf of Jessica Hicklin, a 37-year old inmate serving life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder at age 16, when she went by her birth name, James. She is challenging a state Department of Corrections policy that bars hormone therapy for inmates who weren't receiving it before being incarcerated.

According to her lawsuit, it wasn't until last year that medical experts determined that Hicklin has gender dysphoria, in which a person feels extreme distress because of a disconnect between their birth sex and gender identity. But in a blog posted on Lambda Legal's website, Hicklin wrote that she felt she was a girl since she was very young.

"Even at 16, I felt I was on my way to certain death. I didn't know what gender dysphoria was, or how to explain my feelings to my family or others in my small town," wrote Hicklin, who was convicted of fatally shooting a man during a drug-related crime in the small town of Clinton in 1995.

The lawsuit contends that experts advised she undergo hormone therapy and permanent hair removal and that she have access to "gender-affirming" products from the prison commissary store that typically aren't available at the all-male Potosi Correctional Center where she's imprisoned.