The infamously far-left 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals has ordered the state of Idaho to pay for a transgender inmate's sex reassignment surgery.
The court says that denying the surgery is tantamount to "cruel and unusual punishment".
Adree Edmo, 31, is incarcerated for having pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy at a house party in 2012.
Though biologically male, Edmo identifies as a woman, for which reason the prison has been providing hormone therapy for the past seven years.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the State of Idaho must provide Edmo with taxpayer fundedsex change surgery.
The court says “hormone therapy has not completely alleviated Edmo’s gender dysphoria" because Edmo's male genitalia continues to cause distress.
The court says "Edmo testified that she feels 'depressed, embarrassed, [and] disgusted' by her male genitalia and that this is an 'everyday reoccurring thought.'"The court added that failing to provide gender reassignment surgery at taxpayer expense would be a violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, ruling "we apply the dictates of the Eighth Amendment today in an area of increased social awareness: transgender health care.We are not the first to speak on the subject, nor will we be the last."
The surgery will cost taxpayers in the state more than $325,000.
Edmo is expected to be released from prison in 2021, and is not the only inmate in the state requesting surgery. Five other requests have been submitted since the beginning of 2019, according to the Idaho Department of Correction.