Transgender detainees cut off from hormone drugs
Advocacy group claims jail is depriving immigration detainees of 'adequate health care'

By CINDY CARCAMO
The Orange County Register
updated 5/25/2011 4:22:20 PM ET

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43172454/ns/health-health_care/

SANTA ANA — In the depths of depression, battling hot flashes and desperate about her situation, Monica Freas tried to throw herself from the second floor of the Santa Ana Jail before friends restrained her.

After two decades of taking hormone replacement therapy, the 35-year-old no longer had access to the drugs that made her feel comfortable in her own skin. She begged and pleaded with jailers for months to give her the medication that made her "feel normal" but they refused.

"I just can't even look at myself in the mirror anymore," Freas said in a recent interview while in detention on suspicion of being in the country illegally.

Under disguise of Homeland Security, immigration laws and the Patriot Act, ICE are in violation for federal law.  The government is bound by the Mathew Shepard Law.  This just blatantly a hate crime.

To say that breathing medication is not the same as HRT is just a flat out lie.  HRT saves lives.