Need for change?

Note: This article contains facts that some readers may find disturbing.

Months after a failed castration attempt, Ophelia De'lonta filed a lawsuit Friday against the Virginia Department of Corrections, claiming that the state has not provided him adequate medical care. De'lonta, who is sentenced to more than 70 years in prison for robbery, drug possession, weapons possession, and other charges, says that sex change surgery is needed to deal with the gender identity disorder that makes him believe he was born the wrong gender.

If De'lonta's case is successful, he would be the first inmate to undergo a state-funded sex change operation. The 50-year-old says that if he loses the case, he will continue to attempt self-castration, regardless of the danger.

Del. Todd Gilbert (R-Woodstock) said that he would seek state legislation against sex-change operations for inmates if De'lonta's lawsuit is successful.

"The notion that taxpayers are going to fund a sex change is just ridiculous," said Gilbert.

A 2004 court order forced the DOC to administer hormones to De'lonta which have caused him to develop breasts, and another court order mandated that prison guards address him as a woman. While he is, on occasion, allowed feminine clothing and makeup, De'lonta longs to get rid of "that thing" between his legs and to grow his hair out like female inmates.

Born Michael Stokes, he legally changed his name to Ophelia De'lonta after years of unhappiness with his physical body. By age 18, he was in prison for bank robberies. De'lonta had hoped to steal enough money to pay for a sex change operation.

Now, he feels that the state owes him the surgery.

Since 1997, at least a dozen inmates in Idaho, Massachusetts, New York, Kentucky, Oregon, North Carolina, and Wisconsin have castrated themselves. Many prisoners receive hormones and psychotherapy, but so far, states are unwilling to shell out the estimated $20,000 cost for each surgery.

According to George R. Brown, a psychiatry professor at East Tennessee State University, 500 to 750 Americans undergo sex change operations each year, with many more seeking the surgery abroad.

Robert Kosilek, a Massachusetts inmate, has waged a decades-long war against his state, claiming that by not providing a sex change operation, the state was administering a "cruel and unusual punishment." Kosilek strangled his wife Cheryl in 1990 and is sentenced to life in prison.

"I just think it would be deemed a luxury for him to have that operation. He is in there because he murdered his wife," said Massachusetts state Sen. Scott Brown, who had worked on legislation to ban sex-change operations for prisoners in 1998. "There are no luxuries that are supposed to be available."

Wisconsin passed the "Inmate Sex Change Prevention Act" in 2006 which prohibited state-funded sex change operations, after inmate Scott Konitzer sued the state for the surgery. The law was struck down as unconstitutional by a federal judge in 2010, and an appeal by the state is now underway.

"It's the most absurd thing I've ever heard of," said state Rep. Mark Gundrum of Wisconsin in 2006. "I think the founders of our country - when they wrote [the Eighth Amendment] - they were envisioning preventing people from being burned in oil or burned at the stake, not simply refusing to use taxpayer dollars to allow inmates to get a sex change or breast implants or whatever else."

In Colorado, Christopher Grey has sued the state to provide him a gender specialist who can determine his need for a sex change. Grey, who was sentenced to 16 years to life for molesting an 8-year-old girl, is already receiving female hormones from the Department of Corrections.

Dr. James Michaud, chief of mental health for the Colorado DOC, argues that sex change surgeries are not "medically necessary."

"There are certainly people who are transgendered who want surgery and who want to appear different, but I don't think that makes it medically necessary," said Michaud.

Prisoners have the constitutional right to adequate medical treatment. The refusal of medical treatment for the seriously ill is a violation of the Eight Amendment, according to the Supreme Court decision in Estelle v. Gamble (1976). Medical services are provided at all Virginia Department of Corrections institutions, and the state provides dental services, mental health services, and sex offender treatment to inmates.

De'lonta is eligible for parole this year, but several prison infractions indicate that it is unlikely he would be released in the near future.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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