Georgia law banning gender-affirming care for trans inmates struck downhttps://www.advocate.com/exclusives/georgia-prison-gender-affirming-care 🔗Ryan Adamczeski (5 Dec 2025)
In a massive legal victory, a Georgia law restricting access to gender-affirming care for transgender inmates has been struck down.
Judge Victoria M. Calvert issued a permanent injunction Wednesday against SB 185, signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in May and enforced as of July, finding that it violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
"The state is responsible for the well being of any person it holds in its custody, regardless of whether that person has gender dysphoria or another diagnosis," Emily Early, an attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights who represented the plaintiffs, tells The Advocate. "Gender dysphoria is a medical condition that is just like any other condition of diabetes or cancer that the state must provide minimally adequate treatment for that meets constitutional standards."
"By banning treatment of gender dysphoria, the Georgia Department of Corrections and the private contractor Centurion are banning care that medical providers have determined to be medically necessary, and the Constitution requires that even prisons must provide minimally adequate care to individuals that it holds within its custody," Early says.
SB 185 prohibited the use of state funds or resources for gender-affirming surgeries, hormone replacement therapy, cosmetic procedures, and other treatments for gender dysphoria. However, it "uniquely targeted transgender persons," Early says, as it allowed the same treatments for conditions other than gender dysphoria.
