BOISE, Idaho — A federal judge has ordered the Idaho Department of Corrections to allow a male inmate who identifies as female to obtain a “sex change” operation.
“Defendants are ordered to provide Plaintiff with adequate medical care, including gender confirmation surgery. Defendants shall take all actions reasonably necessary to provide … gender confirmation surgery as promptly as possible and no later than six months from the date of this order,” wrote Judge B. Lynn Winmill, nominated to the bench by then-President Bill Clinton.
Winmill agreed that the 31-year-old inmate, who goes by the name Adree Edmo, “that without surgery … Edmo is at serious risk of life-threatening self-harm.”
According to the ruling, Edmo attempted suicide in 2014, and sought to self-castrate himself in 2015 and 2016, despite being allowed to take female hormones years prior until he was considered “hormonally confirmed.”
Winmill found that the Idaho State Correctional Institute wrote up disciplinary offense reports on Edmo for presenting himself as a woman, such as growing out his hair, wearing makeup and women’s undergarments and “acting in a feminine demeanor.” However, recent policy changes now allow inmates statewide to present themselves in accordance with their “gender identity.”
The judge also concluded that the Idaho Department of Corrections has a de facto policy prohibiting inmates from undergoing sex change operations while in custody. There are 30 prisoners within the state who identify themselves as the opposite sex.
Winmill opined that because of Edmo’s past attempts to harm himself, absent an order directing the prison system to allow him to obtain surgery, he will be at risk of “serious psychological harm and will be at high risk of self-castration and suicide.” He found the operation to be classified as a medical need.
“For more than forty years, the Supreme Court has consistently held that consciously ignoring a prisoner’s serious medical needs amounts to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment,” he wrote.
“Prison authorities thus treat inmates with all manner of routine medical conditions—broken bones are set; diabetic inmates receive insulin; inmates with cancer receive chemotherapy; and so on. This constitutional duty also applies to far less routine, and even controversial, procedures—if necessary to address a serious medical need. And so it is here,” Winmill asserted.
The Idaho Department of Corrections has six months to comply with the order.
“Not having the care I need is like being in a prison within a prison. Even though I am still living, it has felt like I have been dying inside,” Edmo said in a statement, released by the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
As previously reported, the Bible teaches that all men are born with the Adamic sin nature and are “by nature the children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3), having various inherent inclinations that are contrary to the law of God and being utterly incapable of changing themselves. It is why Jesus outlined in John 3:5-7 that men must be regenerated by the second birth, or they cannot see the kingdom of Heaven.
“Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus saith unto him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ‘Ye must be born again.’”
“Bitter experience teaches that the imprisoning net clings too tightly to be stripped from our limbs by our own efforts. Nay rather, the net and the captive are one, and he who tries to cast off the oppression which hinders him from following that which is good is trying to cast off himself,” also wrote the late preacher and Bible commentator Alexander Maclaren.
“But to men writhing in the grip of a sinful past, or paralyzed beyond writhing and indifferent, because [they are] hopeless, or because they have come to like their captivity, comes one whose name is ‘The Breaker,’ whose mission it is to proclaim liberty to the captives, and whose hand laid on the cords that bind a soul, causes them to drop harmless from the limbs and sets the bondsman free.”
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