This story was originally published by The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization focused on the U.S criminal justice system. You can sign-up for their newsletter, or follow The Marshall Project on Facebook or Twitter. Michelle-Lael Norsworthy was well on her way to becoming a pioneer this year—the first U.S. inmate to receive gender reassignment surgery—when she was unexpectedly freed from Mule Creek State Prison in California.
In a ruling this week, two federal judges suggested the timing of her Aug. 12 release on parole wasn’t coincidental. Norsworthy had been denied parole at least five times since she entered prison on a second-degree murder charge in 1987. She wasn’t scheduled for another hearing until next year.
At the time Norsworthy walked out, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had been fighting an April order from a judge to provide her with the reassignment procedure, which can cost an estimated $20,000 and could set a precedent for others.
“All we can say is that the circumstances of Norsworthy’s release are somewhat unusual,” the judges noted.
The needs of transgender prisoners, who make up a tiny percentage of the national inmate population, have been the subject of several lawsuits and headlines in recent years, not to mention one of the most popular story lines on “Orange is the New Black.” But a series of decisions very much like the Norsworthy case suggests that officials often choose another path rather than accommodate those needs.
In Georgia, Ashley Diamond, who successfully sued the state for access to hormone therapy, was surprised to learn she would be paroled in Augustafter serving three and a half years of her 12-year sentence for burglary. The board had not been scheduled to consider her for parole until November. Steve Hayes, a spokesman for the Georgia Pardon and Paroles Board, said releasing an inmate before she was eligible for parole was not unusual.
“This release had nothing to do with any lawsuit,” Hayes said in a statement to The Marshall Project.
And in Virginia, Ophelia De’lonta was granted parole last year, less than six months after a judge ruled the state must evaluate her for sex reassignment surgery. De’lonta had served about 30 years of a 73-year sentence for bank robbery.
As the Marshall Project has reported, parole boards have wide latitude to make decisions for almost any reason. Board records in many states—including Virginia and Georgia—are sealed, so it’s difficult to discern motive.
“It’s a clear pattern,” said attorney Chase Strangio of the American Civil Liberty Union’s LGBT & HIV Project, which filed amicus briefs in Norsworthy’s and De’lonta’s cases. “With courts increasingly recognizing that corrections agencies can’t simply deny care to transgender prisoners, we’re seeing these prisons on the hook for providing this care they do not want to provide,” Strangio said.
California corrections department spokesman Jeffrey Callison declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.
Members of the Virginia Parole Board declined to speak with The Marshall Project, but at the time of De’lonta’s release, board chair Bill Muse told a local news reporter, “we considered her like we do the other 4,000 inmates that are eligible for parole. We looked at the same criteria. We had no conversations and no deals with the Attorney General’s office or the Department of Corrections.”
Judges in Norsworthy’s case were skeptical.
In court filings, corrections officials argued that the case was now moot, since Norsworthy was no longer an inmate at a California prison. But the judges countered that Norsworthy's release may not have been "happenstance."
“These coincidences indicate that there is at least some chance that defendants influenced the parole process,” the judges said. They sent the case back down to a lower court to find out.
15 Things To Know About Being Transgender By Nicholas M. Teich
1. Defining Transgenderism(01 of15)
Open Image Modal2. A Few Words Of Advice(02 of15)
Open Image ModalWhen trans people reveal their trans identity to someone, it is a highly personal moment. It takes trust and courage to talk about gender identity or gender transition. The best-case scenario is probably to: 1) ask what questions, if any, are appropriate; and 2) give the trans person an out if he or she feels like you are overstepping your bounds (even though your questions may be born of an innocent curiosity). This makes it easier for a trans person to maintain privacy and integrity. (credit:Alamy)
3. The Gender Binary (03 of15)
Open Image Modal4. Gender Expression(04 of15)
Open Image Modal5. Orientation And Gender(05 of15)
Open Image ModalIf we look at society as a diverse group of individuals where heterosexuality might be the most common sexual orientation but not necessarily normal, then we can more easily see that human sexual orientation varies: some people happen to be straight, some gay, some bisexual, and so on. This does not necessarily have anything to do with a person's gender identity or expression. (credit:Jennifer Levo/Nick Teich)
6. Coming Out To Oneself (06 of15)
Open Image ModalRealization that one is trans can take anywhere from a few moments to several decades. Usually, trans people have an inkling early on in their lives that their assigned gender feels out of sync with their bodies. The self-realization process is extremely complicated. The human mind does its best to help us survive, which can translate into triggering intense denial. Because of societal constraints, it is common for a person to try to ignore signs pointing toward transgenderism, whether consciously or unconsciously. (credit:Jennifer Levo/Nick Teich)
7. Surgeries(07 of15)
Open Image ModalHealth insurance covers transgender surgeries in very few cases. Some people have fewer surgeries than they would like because of the high prices. Still other trans people elect not to have surgery at all because they simply do not want to.For a long time, and still in many places today, people refer to some transgender surgery as "sex-change" surgery. Later on came the less-harsh sounding "sex-reassignment surgery." Today, more and more people are realizing that surgery for trans people is not a gender "reassignment" but rather an affirmation of the gender that a person has always been. Gender-affirming surgery seems to be the most accurate reflection of this. (credit:Alamy)
8. Hormonal Transition(08 of15)
Open Image ModalFor trans women, taking hormones is a two-step process. To help feminize a genetic male, it is very important to suppress production of testosterone. The other step that transgender women frequently take is the administration of estrogen, which is the chief hormone at work in biological females.Unlike their male-to-female counterparts, trans men do not have to take any estrogen-suppressing substances as part of their hormone treatments. Testosterone (called simply "T" in the female-to-male community) is a powerful hormone. The raising of testosterone levels in a trans man overpowers existing estrogen levels. (credit:Alamy)
9. Transgender Children(09 of15)
Open Image Modal10. Sex, Gender And Nature(10 of15)
Open Image ModalMany plants and animals can be both male and female, biologically speaking, at the same time or at different points in their lives. In a comparison of 34 postmortem human brains, scientists found that the part of the brain comprising a small group of nerve cells thought to pertain to gender and sexuality were similar in trans women and non-trans women. Although the study only had one trans man's brain, it found that group of nerve cells to be similar to that of a non-trans man. Perhaps Dr. Milton Diamond put it best when he said, "Biology loves variation. Biology loves differences. Society hates it." (credit:Jennifer Levo/Nick Teich)
11. Transgenderism As A Mental Health Issue(11 of15)
Open Image Modal12. The Bathroom Debacle (12 of15)
Open Image ModalImagine resigning yourself to not ever using the bathroom in a public place. For trans people, this is often a reality. Those who are in transition or do not pass on the outside as "clearly male" or "clearly female" are thrown out of both men's and women's restrooms on a daily basis. Some places provide "unisex" or "family" restrooms, but the majority do not. If a transperson wants to go out and enjoy a concert, sporting event, or simply a day outside the home, he or she must make concessions that most people never have to think about. (credit:Jennifer Levo/Nick Teich)
13. Lesser-Known Types Of Transgenderism: Genderqueerism(13 of15)
Open Image ModalPeople often find the notion of genderqueerism difficult to understand. They may hear that a genderqueer person is in between male and female, or is neither, but they may continue to ask, "OK, so what sex or gender does that make them, really?" This is where it is perhaps most difficult to live as a genderqueer person. The constant explanations that sometimes get nowhere can be frustrating and disheartening for genderqueer people. (credit:Alamy)
14. Transgender By The Numbers(14 of15)
Open Image ModalUnfortunately there is no major consensus on the number of transgender people in the United States or the world today. Hard-and-fast statistics are lacking for a couple of reasons. One is that many trans people are not out and are either living as trans behind closed doors or living stealthily, meaning that people do not know that they were born differently than they appear now. Another reason for the lack of statistics is that so many different varieties of transgenderism fall under the umbrella term that it is hard to discern which subcategories should actually be statistically counted as transgender and which should not. (credit:Jennifer Levo/Nick Teich)
15. Parting Words(15 of15)
Open Image ModalIn America we have seen that teenage suicide because of bullying has reached epidemic proportions. Many of these kids are LGBT, and most of them are taunted due to some component of their gender expression. I hope that you will talk to others about what you have learned about transgenderism. No one should have to suffer because of who he or she is, but we know that reality tells us differently. People have been bullied and persecuted for who they are since the dawn of time. But we are not defenseless. The more education that is out there about what is means to be different, the better. (credit:Alamy)
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