Idaho inmate becomes 2nd in US to receive gender surgery

NAMPA, Idaho (AP) - An Idaho inmate became the second incarcerated person in the U.S. to undergo gender confirmation surgery while in prison following a legal dispute that went to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Adree Edmo, 32, filed a lawsuit in 2017 against the state of Idaho and the Idaho Department of Correction's health care provider, Corizon Health Inc., saying they violated her Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment by not providing the surgery, The Idaho Press reported Monday.

Deborah Ferguson, Edmo's attorney, confirmed that the the surgery took place July 10.Jeff Ray, spokesman for the Idaho Department of Correction, confirmed Edmo is at the Idaho Correctional Institution-Orofino for post-surgical medical care and will be transferred to the Pocatello Women's Correctional Center at a time determined by her medical condition.

Edmo is scheduled to complete a prison sentence in 2021 for sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy.

Edmo was born male but identifies as female. Prison doctors diagnosed her in 2012 with gender dysphoria, a condition in which the dissonance between a person's birth gender and the gender with which they identify is significant and hurtful.

Not all transgender people have gender dysphoria and not all people who have gender dysphoria require gender confirmation surgery.

A dispute between medical professionals about whether Edmo needed the surgery led to the lawsuit.

Federal district and appellate courts ruled in Edmo's favor, but Republican Gov. Brad Little followed through on a promise to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court in May refused a request by Idaho state attorneys to postpone the surgery to argue the case, effectively enabling the operation to take place.

A California inmate became the first U.S. prisoner to receive gender confirmation surgery in 2017.