Whitney Lee, a transgender woman incarcerated in Ohio, is asking a federal judge to order that the state continue providing her with hormone treatments, which were abruptly halted in February 2012. The state recently resumed the treatments following a temporary ruling by the judge, but a prison psychiatrist is now claiming that Lee supposedly "lacks the criteria for gender identity disorder," according to the Associated Press.
Lee had previously received the treatments at home, in federal prison and in the Hamilton County Justice Center, according to a request for an emergency order filed by the Cincinnati-based Ohio Justice & Policy Center. That included estrogen treatment approved by prison authorities while Lee was imprisoned in 2009 and 2010, the request said.
Lee has been living as a woman since age 18, the center's complaint said.
Without the treatments, Lee lost breast tissue, her voice deepened, her skin became coarser and she began growing facial hair, among other symptoms, the request said. She also has grown irritable and angry and was placed on suicide watch, according to the request.
"Deprivation of hormone treatment wreaks havoc on Ms. Lee's physical and mental health and puts her life in danger," it said.