According to reports, transgender Roman, Ashley Diamond, 37, will receive $250,000 from the state of Georgia. Diamond was an inmate in the state’s prison system when he/she said that prison officials failed to provide adequate treatment for his/her gender dysphoria.
Dysphoria is a condition causing a person to experience extreme distress because of a disconnect between their birth sex and their gender identity.
Diamond said that she had been identified as a female since she was a child and even began hormone therapy at the age of 17. The therapy gave Diamond full breast, a feminine shape and appearance.
Diamond’s attorney’s will also receive $25,000 in the settlement.
“Our lawsuit and Ashley Diamond’s bravery brought about important changes in Georgia, and have put prison officials across the country on notice about the constitutional rights of transgender persons,” said attorney Chinyere Ezie with the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Diamond’s lawsuit stated that over the course of three years Diamond’s body suffered a painful physical transformation back to its masculine state and during that time she suffered severe mental anguish.
The lawsuit added that Diamond was also ridiculed by inmates and prison staff and was sexually assaulted by inmates because she wasn’t offered safe accommodation.
The Justice Department said that prison officials must treat an inmate’s gender identity condition just as they would treat any other medical or mental health condition. The state, since Diamond’s lawsuit, has implemented a new policy to ensure that inmates with a possible gender dysphoria diagnosis are evaluated by qualified medical and mental health professionals.
Diamond was released on parole August 31 after serving about a third of her 12-year sentence for burglary and other convictions.
