Transgender inmate fights for gender-affirming care in SA prison

A TRANSGENDER prisoner serving a life sentence at Johannesburg's “Sun City” Prison will turn to the Equality Court in a bid to receive gender-affirming care, in the form ofhormone replacement therapy.

- ZELDA VENTER

The prisoner, only identified as NM, said in an affidavit that she was assigned the male gender at birth, and although her identity document still reflects her birth name, she asked the court to hear her application under her chosen female name.

She is asking the court to declare that the prison authorities are unfairly discriminating against her in not allowing her to wear her female clothes in prison and for refusing her to use cosmetics.

NM also wants to be addressed as a female and for the officials to use the pronoun her/she in addressing her. She also wants assistance from the department in changing her gender marker, and she wants to be accommodated in a single cell or a cell with inmates of the same gender identity as herself.

She has been in jail since 2013, and she is held in a section of the prison for persons with special needs. According to NM, she has been subjected to harassment and discrimination by officials.