Transgender alleged she was improperly housed with male inmates while jailed for three months in 2021 and 2022.
Transgender woman Chelsea Gilliam has sued the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services in federal court
She says she was sexually assaulted and denied hormone treatment during that time. Chelsea Gilliam was then transferred to a different facility but improperly placed in solitary confinement there for about three months because of her gender identity. The lawsuit alleges the department violated Gilliam’s constitutional rights by having her “housed with men, left unprotected from assault, harassed, held in solitary confinement, and denied necessary medical treatment.” Despite Gilliam’s “female gender identity, feminine appearance and years of hormone therapy treatment,” she was placed at the Baltimore City Correctional Center with male inmates “and forced to shower with men, despite the known risk of sexual assault from male inmates and in contravention of defendants’ own policy,” the suit reads.
Gilliam was threatened with a knife and sexually assaulted by a male inmate while in the shower there
After the assault, the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services took no action, the lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit asks for punitive and compensatory damages. It also asks the court to order the department to give inmates with gender dysphoria adequate and necessary medical care, and to “house inmates with gender dysphoria in accordance with their gender identity.” Gilliam was diagnosed with and began treatment for gender dysphoria in approximately 2003 when she was 17.
She has lived exclusively as a woman for more than 14 years and legally changed her name to Chelsea in 2009. Despite department policy that says the housing placement of an inmate with gender dysphoria “shall be made on a case-by-case basis seriously considering the inmate’s opinion regarding the inmate’s safety and the inmate’s biological gender presentation and appearance,” Gilliam was placed with male inmates at the Baltimore City Correctional Center.
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