MADISON, Wisc. — A federal judge nominated to the bench by then-President Barack Obama has ruled that the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DoC) must allow a male inmate who identifies as a woman to obtain taxpayer-funded “sex reassignment” surgery, no matter how controversial the matter might be.

“The rights of transgender persons and sex reassignment surgery remain politically controversial, even outside the prison context,” wrote U.S. District Judge James Peterson, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

“And some members of the public are outraged at any effort to improve the health and well being of inmates,” he said. “But the true public interest lies in alleviating needless suffering by those who are dependent on the government for their care.”

Therefore, “I decline to impose any further prerequisites on Campbell’s sex reassignment surgery,” Peterson stated. “[He] has waited long enough.”

According to reports, Mark Allen Campbell, who now goes by Nicole Rose Campbell, was sentenced to 34 years in prison in 2007 after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting his 10-year-old daughter. The girl told police that he “had sex with her, masturbated in front of her, used various sex toys with her, and exposed her to DVD and video porn movies and magazines,” reports Rivertown.net.

While incarcerated at Racine Correctional Institute, a men’s facility, Campbell was allowed to obtain counseling, wear some women’s clothing and obtain female hormones, but his request for a sex change operation in 2013 was denied.

He consequently sued in 2016, alleging a violation of the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishments” for prisoners, and seeking damages.

While a federal judge initially allowed the case to move forward, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the Wisconsin DoC could not be held liable as workers would not have known that declining the operation while accommodating Campbell in other ways violated the Constitution.

“The Eighth Amendment requires prison healthcare professionals to exercise medical judgment when making decisions about an inmate’s treatment. And they cannot completely deny the care of a serious medical condition. But cases recognizing those broad principles could not have warned these defendants that treating an inmate’s gender dysphoria with hormone therapy and deferring consideration of sex-reassignment surgery violates the Constitution,” wrote Judge Wanda Sykes, according to Media Entertainment Arts Worldwide.

But Peterson ruled differently this month, opining that the DoC had been indifferent to Campbell’s medical needs as he “continues to suffer from gender dysphoria, which causes [him] anguish and puts [him] at risk of self-harm or suicide.”

He agreed to allow Campbell to be transferred to the Taycheedah Correctional Institution, a women’s prison, for one year while he waits to obtain the operation. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the DoC had requested the transferal if the judge sided with Campbell.

Peterson, however, did not approve Campbell’s requests for breast augmentation, voice therapy, and electrolysis, not finding those procedures as being proven necessary by his attorneys.

As previously reported, while some view transgenderism as a medical condition, Christians believe the matter is also a spiritual issue at its root — one that stems from the same predicament all men everywhere face due to the Fall.

The Bible teaches that all are born with the Adamic sin nature, having various inherent feelings and inclinations that are contrary to the law of God, and being utterly incapable of changing by themselves.

Jesus outlined in John 3:5-7 that men must be regenerated by the second birth, and be transformed from being in Adam to being a new creation in Christ, or they cannot see the kingdom of Heaven. It is known in Christianity as the doctrine of regeneration.

1 Corinthians 15:45 states, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam (Jesus) became a life-giving spirit.”

“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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