Trans Woman Wins Lawsuit Against NY Jail After Being Denied Prescribed Hormone Treatment

(image via Geoff Sterns/Flickr - CC License)

A transgender woman has successfully sued a county jail in New York state for denying her medically-prescribed hormone treatments for 16 months while incarcerated.

From Gay Star News:

In 2013, Jessica Sunderland sued the Suffolk County in New York state. She served a 16 month sentence at the Riverside Correctional Facility.

Sunderland said the jail refused to give her her prescribed hormone therapy even though she had started transitioning two year prior.

‘I had been transitioning for two years prior, and to have everything reverse itself… it was horrible,’ she told The Appeal.

In October, Sunderland won her case against the jail and its medical director, Vincent Geraci. A jury found the jail and Geraci had violated her constitutional rights. The court awarded her $280,000 in damages and $75,000 in punitive damages against Geraci.

According to the The Appeal, the jail kept giving Sunderland excuses about why it was not giving her hormones.

‘It was very uncomfortable to deal with the physical changes,’ she said. After multiple stalling tactics, the jail confirmed that Geraci decided she shouldn’t have hormone treatment.

‘I was told I wasn’t going to get it—at all,’ Sunderland said.

Geraci originally refused to prescribe Sunderland hormones because he claimed it would damage her liver. But also wrote in her medical records it was his ‘preference’.

According to The New York Times, the doctor had shared several anti-trans posts on social media.