Trans woman’s lawsuit against North Carolina can proceed, judge says

Muri Assunção, New York Daily News
·2 min read
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The case of a transgender woman who’s suing North Carolina for essential gender-affirming health care can go forward, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

Kanautica Zayre-Brown, a transgender woman incarcerated at Anson Correctional Institution, filed a lawsuit against the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (DPS) in April.

Zayre-Brown has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a term defined by the American Psychiatric Association as a medical diagnosis that identifies a “psychological distress that results from an incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity.”

According to the lawsuit, which was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Chapel Hill-based private law firm Patterson Harkwvay LLP on her behalf, Zayre-Brown has requested necessary treatment consistent with established medical standards for years, but she continues to face delays.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn said he intends to hear arguments in the case, rejecting the state government’s motion to dismiss it, according to the Charlotte Observer.

Cogburn also denied the ACLU’s motion for a preliminary injunction that would’ve required DPS to provide the gender-affirming care she has been denied while the case proceeds.

“State officials must comply with their legal obligations to those committed to their care, including those who are transgender,” Jaclyn Maffetore, staff attorney with the ACLU of North Carolina, said in a statement. “DPS’s failure to provide that care is a violation of her rights, an affront to her dignity, and a threat to her life.”

Last week, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes North Carolina, ruled that people who experience gender dysphoria are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The first-of-its-kind ruling reversed a Virginia district court’s dismissal of claims brought by a transgender woman who alleged discrimination when she spent six months at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.

According to NC Policy Watch, Zayre-Brown was the state’s first incarcerated trans person to be transferred to a facility according to her gender identity when she was moved to the Anson Correctional Institution in 2019. She is scheduled to be released in November 2024.