A federal court has struck down a Missouri Department of Corrections policy that bars transgender inmates from receiving transition-related health care treatments.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Noelle C. Collins declared the Department of Corrections’ “freeze-frame” policy unconstitutional, finding that it violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishment” because it denies health care to transgender inmates unless they had previously been receiving treatment prior to their incarceration.
Jessica Hicklin, a transgender woman incarcerated at the Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point, Mo., sued over the policy, saying she was denied the right to receive hormones, body hair removal treatments, and access to “gender-affirming” canteen items.
In February, Collins issued a preliminary injunction to stop the prison from enforcing its “freeze-frame” policy and allow Hicklin to access those treatments, which are recommended as medically necessary to help treat Hicklin’s gender dysphoria.
Collins also issued an order permanently barring the Missouri Department of Corrections, and Corizon LLC, its contracted health care provider, from refusing medically necessary treatment like hormones to transgender inmates across the state.
Lambda Legal, which is representing Hicklin in the case, celebrated the court’s decision, noting that it would spare her significant “pain and anguish,” and would also protect other inmates from discrimination.
“To keep life-saving treatment from transgender people suffering needlessly in prison simply because they were not receiving that treatment before they entered the facility is cruel and unlawful,” Demoya Gordon, an attorney with Lambda Legal’s Transgender Rights Project, said in a statement. “This is the first court in the country that we know of to rule specifically that ‘freeze-frame policies’ are unconstitutional, but we are hopeful that other courts will see these discriminatory policies as deliberate indifference to incarcerated transgender people’s serious medical needs and follow suit.”
Hicklin also celebrated the victory, which ensures she’ll be treated according to her gender identity going forward.
“For years, I felt like I had been drowning,” she said in a statement. “But when the first decision came down in February, I could finally breathe knowing I would be able to start an important part of my transition that I had been waiting for desperately. This final decision makes it unquestionably clear that prisons cannot deny transgender people like me life-saving medical care and that MDOC and Corizon must continue to provide the gender dysphoria treatment I need.”
Social conservatives are claiming vindication for their views after Robin Westman, the 23-year-old behind the August 27 mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, was identified as transgender by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in an X post.
Armed with a rifle, shotgun, and pistol, Westman fired dozens of rounds into the church during a morning Mass attended by students from the affiliated Annunciation Catholic School, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said, as reported by The Associated Press.
Gun rights groups are blasting the Trump administration after CNN reported that senior Justice Department officials have been discussing the possibility of restricting transgender U.S. citizens from owning firearms, following the recent mass shooting at a Catholic church in Minneapolis. Although officials described the talks as "preliminary," critics warn that even floating such a proposal scapegoats transgender people and threatens their constitutional rights.
The internal talks appeared to draw on a theory promoted by conservative influencers and media outlets: that transgender people are mentally ill, and that transition-related hormones negatively affect mental health, making them more prone to violence.
Austin police are investigating whether an assault on a transgender woman and a male bystander at Barton Springs, a popular Austin swimming spot, was a hate crime. The incident occurred on July 26, when three men began flirting with the woman’s friends and then allegedly harassed her after she approached them.
"They said something along the lines of 'I don't support that lifestyle,' while pointing at me, which upset all three of us," said the transgender woman, whose name is being withheld for safety and privacy reasons, in an interview with the Houston Chronicle.
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