Ashley Diamond Case Study

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Ashley Diamond was incarcerated for three years in multiple men’s prison in Georgia for a theft conviction, where she was deprived of healthcare needs that resulted in a rise in anxiety, an onset of depression and multiple attempts of suicide (Kellaway). These symptoms may sound like what would be expected of someone in prison, but there is more to this case. Ashely Diamond is a transgender woman who had been on a hormone therapy that transformed her body from male to female for seventeen years before her sentence. Once she was incarcerated, prison officials abruptly discontinued her hormone therapy, causing her to spiral into depression and suicidal tendencies.
Gender dysphoria, as defined by the legal medical expert, Travis Wright Colopy, is “a person’s persistent discomfort with his or her sex or sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex (234)”. People who are diagnosed with this condition undergo a treatment that consists of seeing a therapist to discuss their dysphoria and living as their preferred gender while taking a hormone therapy (Agbenemu 2). When people who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria are not provided these treatments, they can go through the same psychological torment as Ashley Diamond, as well as attempted self-mutilation of sex-organs.
Transgender people have been fighting for equality for a …show more content…

Humanity is ever evolving; we are at a time when discrimination, prejudice, and sexism are raging and we need to fight it. The Eighth Amendment guarantees inmates the right during incarceration to not be on the receiving end of cruel or unusual punishment and the right to receive healthcare. All people, regardless of gender or sex, are entitled to these rights, and we should be fighting to ensure that they are

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