Washington state has spent over half a million dollars on medical procedures for transgender-identifying male inmates over the last four years.
Since 2020, when Disability Rights Washington leveled its lawsuit against the state Department of Corrections (DOC), 44 inmates across nine of the state’s eleven prison facilities have received taxpayer-funded gender-transition interventions, including top and bottom surgery. The total cost was $592,577.67 through June 2024, and some of the costs were covered by Medicaid, radio host Jason Rantz reported based on documents he obtained from the DOC. Hormone therapy alone, which the DOC solely covers without help from Medicaid, has cost the state over $317,000 since 2020.
As part of a 2023 agreement with Disability Rights Washington, the DOC agreed to accommodate transgender-identifying inmates’ “gender-affirming healthcare and services that are consistent with the Washington Health Care Authority’s Transhealth Program for people living in the community.” The agreement also obliged DOC to retain a gender medical specialist, gender mental-health specialists at each major prison, community consultants for gender medical and mental-health care, and several care navigators and administrators to implement the program.
The DOC does not factor in an inmate’s conviction or remaining prison sentence when reviewing requests for gender-reassignment procedures. At least eleven transgender-identifying male felons are currently housed at the Washington Corrections Center for Women, colloquially known as “Purdy.” Many of them committed violent crimes against women and children.
A transgender-identifying male felon with a violent criminal past was moved out of Purdy back to men’s prison after National Review reported that he had a prohibited sexual encounter with a female inmate. It appears he is now in the process of receiving bottom surgery.
Bryan Kim, who goes by Amber FayeFox Kim, was relocated to Monroe Correctional Facility after a March incident in which a Purdy corrections officer discovered him having sexual intercourse with 25-year-old Sincer-A Marie Nerton. Kim still had functioning male genitalia at the time.