Transgender inmate accuses NC prisons of withholding surgery, gender-affirming treatment
A transgender inmate has sued the N.C. prison system in federal court, accusing officials of depriving her of the medical care, surgery and accommodations she needs.
The complaint, filed Friday by the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, claims that the prison system’s treatment of Kanautica Zayre-Brown has worsened her gender dysphoria and put her life at risk.
The complaint names the N.C. Department of Public Safety, DPS Secretary Eddie Buffaloe, Prisons Commissioner Todd Ishee and others, and accuses them of violating the U.S. and North Carolina constitutions and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
It has called on U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn to issue an order requiring the state to provide Zayre-Brown “with necessary medical care and accommodations for her gender dysphoria, including the use of gender-consistent terminology, consistent hormone therapy maintenance, and gender-affirming surgery,” according to an ACLU statement. It also wants damages.
Jaclyn Maffetore, staff attorney with the ACLU of North Carolina, says the state has repeatedly ignored “its constitutional obligation” to provide necessary care “simply because she is a transgender woman.”
“Mrs. Zayre-Brown has a serious medical condition that DPS’s own health care providers have recognized requires treatment including gender-affirming surgery,” Maffetore said in a statement accompanying the complaint.
“DPS’s denial of treatment is not only discriminatory — it is inhumane. By refusing to treat her gender dysphoria, DPS subjects Mrs. Zayre-Brown to needless suffering and places her life at risk.”
John Bull, a communications officer with the prison system, said the Department of Public Safety does not comment on pending lawsuits.
Gender dysphoria is a severe psychological condition that can occur when a person is born of one sex but identifies as another. Zayre-Brown was born a male but has identified as a female since she was a child.
According to N.C. prison records, the 40-year-old is a convicted felon who began serving a 10-year prison sentence in 2017 on a habitual felon conviction. She spent the first two years in Harnett Correctional Institution, a male prison, where, according to the complaint, she “was misgendered on a near-constant basis by both correctional and medical staff and other prisoners.”
“Being a transgender woman in a male facility exacerbated Mrs. Zayre-Brown’s gender dysphoria, caused her extreme mental and psychological distress, placed her at grave risk of physical ... and sexual assault, and led to Mrs. Zayre-Brown being placed on suicide-watch,” the lawsuit alleges.
After public outcry, including the threat of an ACLU lawsuit unless she was moved, Zayre-Brown was transferred to Anson Correctional Institution, a female prison, in 2019. There, however, she has continued to be a target of discrimination, her lawyers say.
She is scheduled for release in November 2024.
Advocates for the LGBTQ community and racial justice applauded the lawsuit. Kendra Johnson, executive director of Equality NC, called on the state to provide care to Zayre-Brown, whom she described as an outspoken and longtime critic of prison treatment of transgender people.
“DPS’s denial of required medical care is a continual and prolonged denial of her basic human rights and dignity,” Johnson said.
In all, the suit names more than a dozen defendants, including:
▪ Arthur Campbell, medical director for the Division of Prisons.
▪ Brian Sheitman, the prison system’s chief of psychiatry.
▪ Valerie Langley, nursing director of the prisons.
This story was originally published May 2, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Transgender inmate accuses NC prisons of withholding surgery, gender-affirming treatment."
