Female inmate sues Virginia prison for housing her with men
December 29, 2010 - 12:00 PM
By Amanda Hess
http://www.tbd.com/blogs/amanda-hess/2010/12/female-inmate-sues-virginia-prison-for-housing-her-with-men-6574.htmlDeena Kaye Myers, an inmate at Virginia's Deerfield Correctional Center, has sued 38 employees of the male prison—from Warden Keith W. Davis down to numerous unnamed corrections officers—for housing her with men.
In recent years, transgender activists have lobbied jails and prisons around the country to ensure that trans inmates are housed in facilities consistent with their gender identity. Myers' case is a little different. According to Myers' suit, she was born with a medical condition that caused her to develop "feminized external genitalia," meaning "no scrotum, no gonads, and no penis." Though assigned male at birth, Myers was reassigned as female shortly thereafter and raised as a girl. Her birth certificate lists her gender as female. Results of blood work conducted on Aug. 17, 2010 reveal that Myers' "hormone levels clearly reflect that of a biological female." And Myers identifies as a woman. "I want to make it clear to you," she wrote in one complaint to the prison. "I am not a (hermaphrodite or Transsexual) I AM A FEMALE. My birth certificate states my gender as female. . . . I (do not) belong in an all male prison."
