CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — It is a first for a federal judge: A judge in Illinois has ordered that a prison inmate — a trans woman — be evaluated for gender affirmation surgery.
It is the ACLU of Illinois that’s representing 47-year-old Cristina Nichole Iglesias, now an inmate at a federal prison in Texas, once a prison inmate in a federal prison downstate.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Nancy J. Rosenstengel of the Southern District of Illinois wrote in her ruling that “Iglesias suffers daily and is at risk of self-mutilation and suicide,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
And the ACLU said the federal judge’s order that Iglesias be evaluated for gender affirmation surgery could lead to the first surgery of its kind for a prisoner in federal custody.
Gender affirmation is what many refer to as sex reassignment.
The Sun-Times reported that Iglesias is serving time for threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction and that she wants the surgery soon because she’s set to be released from prison in less than a year.
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