The Boston Globe
January 25th, 2019
By Michael Levenson
The Massachusetts Department of Correction, under pressure from a federal lawsuit, said it has for the first time moved a transgender inmate from a men’s prison to a women’s prison.
The prisoner’s lawyer, Jennifer L. Levi, said she believes the transfer also marks the first time a transgender prisoner in the United States has been moved to a prison that corresponds to her gender identity.
The 54-year-old inmate, who has lived as a woman and received hormone therapy for nearly 40 years, was transferred from MCI-Norfolk to MCI-Framingham, the state women’s prison, in September, but the move was only disclosed in a court filing this month.
The transfer marks a victory for a growing national movement by advocates who have been pressuring prisons to house inmates according to their gender identity, provide transgender inmates with hormone therapy and other medical treatments, and accommodate prisoners who want to buy makeup at the commissary or wear long hair.