NEWS FLASH

Virginia May Deny Trans Inmate Important Medical Care | According to Dr. Christina Gherghe, transgender inmate Ophelia De’Lonta needs to have sexual reassignment therapy to complete her transition, but Gherghe cannot mandate it. Now it’s up to the state of Virginia to provide De’Lonta with the proper medical care she needs for the sake of her own mental health, but Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is expected to oppose it. De’Lonta described such a denial of care as “torture”:

DE’LONTA: Refusing to provide effective treatment for a serious medical condition serves no penological purpose. It amounts to torture. I’m being tortured because I can’t receive the treatment I’m suppose to have. So, you just let me suffer. [...] They ‘re wanting taxpayers to see this as cosmetic. That this is ‘something she wants.’ I respect and admire their intelligence but this is a serious medical situation. Now that I have that from your specialist, somebody that you hired. If you don’t follow it then, you’re in violation.