Keohane v. Dixon

On September 30, 2024, the Florida Department of Corrections rescinded its policy regarding treatment of gender dysphoria, which allowed for hormone therapy when deemed medically necessary, as well as access to clothing and grooming standards that accord with one’s gender identity.

Summary
What's At Stake

• Summary
  • On September 30, 2024, the Florida Department of Corrections rescinded its policy regarding treatment of gender dysphoria, which allowed for hormone therapy when deemed medically necessary, as well as access to clothing and grooming standards that accord with one’s gender identity. Under this new policy, grooming and clothing accommodations have been stripped away, and hormone therapy is not permitted unless an exception is deemed constitutionally required. The ACLU brought a class action challenging the policy.
• What’s At Stake
  • On September 30, 2024, the Florida Department of Corrections issued a bulletin setting new rules for the medical care that the Department would provide to transgender people in its custody who had received a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Contrary to the medical mainstream, the bulletin suggests those seeking hormone therapy may have endured “short-termed delusions or beliefs which may later be changed and reversed” and recommended against providing any gender-affirming medical care unless extensive barriers are overcome.
  • That same day, at Florida Department of Corrections facilities across the state, transgender inmates diagnosed with gender dysphoria were rounded up and informed that FDC policy had been changed, “up to and including hormone therapy.” They were specifically told that they would no longer have access to clothing and grooming standards that accord with their gender identity and would have 30 days to comply.
  • Transgender women like Reiyn Keohane were told that those who did not cut their hair in compliance with male grooming standards would be forcibly shorn, and those who did not turn in their female undergarments and feminine canteen items would be disciplined. Transgender women were forced to have their breasts examined to determine if their breasts were large enough, in the eyes of the Department, to require a bra.
  • In October 2024, the ACLU and the ACLU of Florida filed emergency litigation on behalf of Reiyn Keohane--a transgender woman in the custody of the Department who has been receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy and clothing and grooming accommodations since 2016--and a proposed class of transgender inmates with gender dysphoria, on the grounds that the new policy constitutes a violation of their Eighth Amendment right to medically necessary care. The ACLU and ACLU of Florida previously filed a 2016 lawsuit on behalf of Ms. Keohane that led to the now-rescinded policy permitting access to hormone therapy and female clothing and grooming standards for transgender women in FDC custody, which for more than six years, permitted hundreds of transgender inmates to access needed gender-affirming care.