Trans Woman Could Be First Federal Inmate To Undergo Gender Confirmation Surgery

Topline

A transgender woman serving time in a Texas prison could become the first federal inmate to recieve gender confirmation surgery in custody after a judge ordered the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to evaluate her case this month.

Key Facts

Cristina Nichole Iglesias, a 47-year-old woman serving a 20-year sentence since 1994 for threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction, has been lobbying to undergo the surgery since 2016, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Last week, Judge Nancy J. Rosenstengel ordered the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to evaluate Iglesias for the procedure for the first time in the federal prison system, according to the Illinois branch of the ACLU, which is providing Iglesias with legal representation.

The order paves the way for Iglesias to become the first inmate to have gender confirmation surgery in the federal prison system.While another inmate became the first to gain approval to undergo the procedure in October, according to the Dallas Morning News, Rosenstengel urged the bureau to make a speedy decision that could push Iglesias to have the surgery sooner.

In her order, Rosenstengel pressured the prison bureau to make a decision about the surgery quickly, and if approved, to schedule the procedure soon because Iglesias is slated for release in late 2022, the newspaper reported.

Rosenstengel noted Iglesias has indicated that her gender dysphoria could cause her to hurt herself, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Crucial Quote

“I am happy to have had the chance to tell my story and am hopeful that other transgender people will benefit from my case,” Iglesias told the Dallas Morning News in a statement through her lawyer, adding that without Rostentengal’s intervention, she would have continued to “fall through the cracks and [the Bureau of Prisons] would ignore my need for gender-affirming surgery which I’ve been fighting to get for decades.”

Big Number

1,200. That’s how many federal inmates identify as transgender, which accounts for less than 1% of the prisons’ populations, according to the U.S. Justice Department. 

Key Background

Iglesias is serving a two-decade prison sentence for sending death threats to the U.K.’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. At the time, she was already in federal custody after she threatened an Oklahoma judge by mail in 1994, according to the Dallas Morning News. She first served time in Illinois before being transferred to Texas. In 2015, Iglesias was approved to begin hormone therapy. She is incarcerated in Fort Worth’s Federal Medical Center Carswell, a women’s prison. While she would be the first federal prisoner to undergo gender confirmation surgery, a handful of inmates in state prison systems have had the procedure.

Further Reading

Transgender prisoner in Texas could become first to receive gender-affirming surgery (Dallas Morning News)

Former Illinois inmate could be 1st federal prisoner to have gender confirmation surgery (Chicago Sun Times)