BellinghamHerald.com – By Rebecca Boone
An Idaho inmate who considers herself a woman trapped in a man’s body – and who castrated herself while in prison – is suing the state in federal court to get female hormone therapy for what she describes as gender identity disorder.
Jenniffer Spencer, who is biologically male and castrated herself using a disposable razor blade in her prison cell, claims the Idaho Department of Correction and its health care providers are violating her constitutional rights and subjecting her to cruel and unusual punishment by failing to diagnose gender identity disorder and treat her with the female hormone estrogen.
But the state’s attorneys contend that prison doctors did not find conclusive evidence that Spencer, who is in her 20s, has the disorder, and that after her castration doctors did offer her treatment with the male hormone testosterone, which she refused.