Dreveona Richards, who goes by the artist name Black Princess Diana, or “Princess,” sat in the overflow room of the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) meeting in early September.
Officials were meeting to discuss a rule change titled “Treatment of Gender Dysphoria and Intersex Offenders in accordance with SB 185, signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp in May, that bans gender affirming healthcare in Georgia’s jails and prisons.
Princess was handled roughly by arresting officers, she said, and taken to the hospital before pre-trial. There, she was able to receive her hormone shot before being processed. She still had to “beg” the doctor for her medication, she said, and her pronouns were not respected. She knows the system from the inside, recently released on parole from Fulton County Jail, notorious for its poor conditions.
The same day as the GDC meeting, a Georgia district court judge placed a preliminary injunction on SB 185, halting the effects of the law. The injunction followed a lawsuit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, representing incarcerated trans Georgians. Dr. Christy Perez, journalist, advocate, and development coach for SnapCo in Atlanta, closely follows the language of legislation around trans lives. “Protect the incarcerated dolls, that’s my slogan,” Perez said.
Perez asked her Instagram followers to submit public comment before the GDC rule change meeting, but no comments were shared at the vote, which she called a “farce.” She posted about it because when “standard operating procedures” like these are approved they serve as a “litmus test” for further discriminatory policies. “Ask why autonomy or some type of right, essential right that you were guaranteed as a person is being legislated away.”
Emily Early, associate director of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) Southern Regional Office, asserted that “these are all tests to see how cruel and unusual and heartless certain institutions and people can be towards trans people, to basically eliminate them.” The defendants appealed the preliminary injunction to the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. “The judicial environment is not particularly friendly to these sort of cases,” Early said.
Perez said that years ago, she might have been more optimistic about the future of this case, “because our country at that time was more respectful to the preponderance of medical evidence.” Perez spent 13 years incarcerated in Georgia prisons, and won multiple lawsuits advocating for her hormone therapy, and other gender affirming treatments. Now, she observes “the rollback in medical care,” like divestment from the Prison Rape Elimination Act.
Reverend Ronnie Fuller served 22 years in GDC, and advocated for gender affirming top surgery, without success. He saw incarcerated women receive breast reconstruction surgery, and wondered why his surgery was not considered medically necessary. “They do it with the mindset of the ladies leaving there whole,” Fuller said. “Removing my chest would make me feel whole so what is the difference … treating gender dysphoria is just as important.”
Isabel Otero, Georgia Policy Director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said “politicians cannot continue to swap out a doctor’s judgment for their political ideology.” SB 185 violates the 8th amendment of the constitution, a point echoed in public comment provided by the Southern Center for Human Rights, that “the U.S. Constitution protects all people in government custody … the government may not deliberately withhold health care they know people in prison need.”
Otero cited the fact that “it is going to cost taxpayers millions of dollars” for litigation against laws like SB 185, while ironically, arguments in support of the bill are that taxpayers shouldn’t pay for inmates’ “sex change.” Democrats in the Georgia House of Representatives staged a walkout to protest a vote on the bill. District 41 Senator Kim Jackson voted against the bill, “I was clear then that this is unconstitutional and that it is fundamentally cruel and unusual punishment.”
Though Jackson said she felt positive about the injunction, “it’s a winning narrative for the Republican Party so they’re going to keep pushing it.” Princess agreed, “They’re in a position to stop all of this and instead of stopping it they’re creating a show.” Jackson said attacks on trans lives will continue until a “critical mass” of people stand up and fight. Princess said she’s tired of having to argue about who she’s “born as,” and asked, “I want to know, will it ever end?”