SCOTUS Lets Pro-Trans Ruling Stand

The Supreme Court today refused to hear the appeal of a ruling that commands prisons to provide proper medical attention to transgender inmates. Lambda Legal reports:

There are particular moments in the movement for transgender equality when we consider it a great victory when a court refuses to hear a case—and today is one of those moments. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal brought by the State of Wisconsin after Lambda Legal, the ACLU and the ACLU of Wisconsin successfully challenged a state law that prohibits medically necessary treatment for transgender people in prison. In 2005, Wisconsin legislators passed a law—offensively coined the “Inmate Sex-Change Prevention Act”—that barred prison doctors from providing transgender prisoners medically necessary transition-related care such as hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgery while in state custody. Even though Wisconsin, to date, is the only state to pass such a repugnant law targeting an already marginalized, politically unpopular group of people, the law is symbolic of the widespread ignorance of transgender people’s health care. Transition-related care is so often seen as cosmetic, experimental or simply unnecessary, even though the medical community for years has understood these treatments to be effective, medically necessary and often even life-saving.