California governor considers parole for transgender inmate

California Gov. Jerry Brown is weighing whether to grant parole for Michelle-Lael Norsworthy, a transgender inmate who is suing the state to provide sex-reassignment surgery. If she is successful, the first state will be the first to do so for a prisoner.

Brown will decide whether Norsworthy, 51, should be released 30 years after she fatally shot 26-year-old Franklin Gordon Liefer Jr. after an argument in a Fullerton bar in 1985.

Norsworthy was born male but identifies as a woman and is held with male inmates at Mule Creek State Prison. Her attorneys say she has suffered distress and anxiety since adolescence as a result of gender dysphoria and realized she needed sex-reassignment surgery only while she was in prison. She was diagnosed with gender identity disorder in 1999.

Brown has until midnight Friday to decide whether to grant parole. If he does, it's not clear whether the state would pay for the surgery, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars, before she is released.

A federal judge in April ordered the state to provide the surgery, which was scheduled for July 1. But the procedure is on hold until the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals can hear the state's appeal to the April ruling. The appeal is scheduled for Aug. 13.

U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar ruled in April that the state's refusal to provide the surgery violated Norsworthy's constitutional rights. 

Prison psychologist William Reese in 2012 determined that "clinical medical necessity suggest and mandate a sex change medical operation before normal mental health can be achieved for this female patient," according to Norsworthy's lawsuit. Reese determined that the sex-reassignment surgery was necessary for Norsworthy's "health and well-being," the document added.

Soon after Reese gave this medical opinion, the state transferred him to another institution and terminated all his contact with Norsworthy, The Guardian reported.

The state said none of the physicians who have treated Norsworthy determined the surgery was necessary for her. She has received counseling and medical treatment while in prison, including hormone therapy, attorneys for the state said in court papers.

Norsworthy told The Guardian that she understands people will question why a convicted murderer should receive a sex change at taxpayers' expense. She argued, "Medical treatment is not a reward. It’s an obligation that the state takes on when it decides to confine people for a long time."

At least two other transgender inmates in California have filed lawsuits seeking sex-reassignment surgery. One of them — Mia Rosati, a 59-year-old who was born a man but identifies as a woman — was convicted of murder and is serving 83 years to life in a state prison in San Diego.

Rosati accused prison officials of violating her rights to equal protection and subjecting her to cruel and unusual punishment by denying her sex-reassignment surgery on the recommendation of a physician's assistant.

Wire services