Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 23:17:00 EDT From: Song Weaver Subject: Transgendered Prisoner Case to Supreme Ct Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit TRANSSEXUAL PRISONER GAINS HEARING By Leslie Feinberg On Jan. 12, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear the case of transsexual prisoner Dee Farmer. Farmer, a male-to-female transsexual, was incarcerated in a federal penitentiary for men despite the fact that she had already completed breast implantation. Once she was placed in the general population, Farmer was raped. She filed a lawsuit, charging that prison officials violated the constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. The federal prison bureau has no uniform policy for humane treatment of transsexual prisoners. But Deputy Solicitor General Paul Bender defended the bureau before the high court. Bender repeatedly referred to Farmer as "he" and attacked her reputation and her HIV-positive status. Bender then extended his attack to the sizable transgendered population behind bars. He said if the court accepts the suggestion that "effeminate" prisoners risk being raped, that could lead to every federal prison being found in violation of the Eighth Amendment's protection from cruel and unusual punishment. A shocking admission. -30- (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 West 17 St., New York, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@blythe.org.) +----------------------------------------------------------------+ + 212-675-9690 NY TRANSFER NEWS COLLECTIVE 212-675-9663 + + Since 1985: Information for the Rest of Us +