National
Trans inmate sues Va. corrections department over denial of surgery
Lawsuit says refusal of medical care is ‘cruel and unusual punishment’

The LGBTQ litigation group Lambda Legal on Aug. 26 filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Virginia Department of Corrections on behalf of a transgender man incarcerated at a state prison on grounds that he was illegally denied “medically necessary” care, including breast removal surgery.
The lawsuit charges that the denial of surgery for Jason Yoakam, 42, who has been assigned to the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in Troy, Va., since 2004, violates the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment.”
According to the lawsuit, prison officials also denied Yoakam treatment from qualified mental healthcare providers for gender dysphoria, a medical condition experienced by transgender people widely recognized by professional associations representing the medical and mental health professions, including the American Psychiatric Association.
A statement released by Lambda Legal points out that gender dysphoria is listed as a medical condition that some transgender people experience as significant distress when their gender identity is not congruent with their sex assigned at birth.
“Mr. Yoakam is not seeking special treatment, just access to medically necessary health care and reasonable accommodations,” said Richard Saenz, a senior attorney for Lambda Legal and one of a team of attorneys representing Yoakam in the lawsuit. “Every incarcerated person has a right to basic health care based on their medical needs and should not face discrimination because of their sex,” Saenz said in the Lambda Legal statement.
“The only thing I am asking is to be treated fairly and have access to the same standard of healthcare that other incarcerated people receive,” Yoakam said in the statement. “It has been traumatizing, isolating, and stigmatizing to be denied health care services to treat the gender dysphoria that VDOC’s own providers have diagnosed,” he said.
The lawsuit says that from an early age Yoakam has believed his female body was a “mistake” and he finds his breasts an image of “shame and disgust.” It says prison officials did provide him with a “chest binder” that compresses his breasts, but which also causes pain and skin irritation and cannot provide the necessary treatment and remedy that only surgery can bring about.
By denying him surgery and other needed medical or mental health care, the lawsuit charges, prison authorities have also violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment as well as nondiscrimination provisions under the Americans with Disability Act and the Affordable Care Act.
A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections and the facility where Yoakam is being held could not immediately be reached for comment on the lawsuit
Lambda Legal says in its statement that prison officials told Yoakam he could not be approved for the bilateral mastectomy or chest surgery he requested because it considered the surgery an “elective” procedure that was not medically necessary for treatment of gender dysphoria.
The Washington Post reports that a Department of Corrections official told the Post in an email message that its internal guidelines for medical care for inmates calls for deciding on treatment and care requests on a case-by-case basis.
“All medically necessary treatment is available,” the spokesperson told the Post. “We follow the community standard of care.”
Court records show that Yoakam pleaded guilty in 2004 to a charge of first-degree murder and was sentenced by a Virginia judge to 30 years in prison, with nine years suspended for a total of 21 years of incarceration. An inmate information page on the Fluvanna Correctional Center’s website shows that Yoakam is scheduled to complete his sentence and to be released on May 23, 2022, after serving just over 18 years.
A corrections department spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached about Yoakam’s release schedule, but correctional systems often reduce the time served for inmates based on a number of factors, including good behavior.
Court records and all official references to Yoakam at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women refer to him by his legal female birth name. Saenz of Lambda Legal said Yoakam is in the process of legally changing his name to Jason Yoakam.
The court records and news media reports show that Yoakam, at age 24, was arrested on a first-degree murder charge and other related charges, including illegal firearms possession, on March 3, 2004, just over four months after he allegedly shot and killed James “Jamie” Lane, 39, on Oct. 15, 2003.
The incident occurred in Lee County, Va., located in the southwestern corner of the state near the Kentucky and Tennessee borders. The Kingsport, Tenn., Times-News reported in a Dec. 3, 2003, story that Yoakam was identified at that time as a lesbian woman who became enraged when his girlfriend left him to begin a relationship with Lane.
“Testimony from a number of witnesses indicated that the shooting may have stemmed from a love triangle with a twist,” the Times-News reported.
The newspaper reported that Lane’s ex-wife, Tonya Garrett Lane, 30, who is Yoakam’s half-sister, was charged with allegedly conspiring to murder the ex-girlfriend of Yoakam who reportedly left Yoakam to begin a relationship with her ex-husband.
“The ex-Mrs. Lane was apparently involved because she didn’t want her children ‘being raised by a (expletives deleted) lesbian,’” the Times-News reported based on testimony in court.
Federal Government
RFK Jr.’s HHS report pushes therapy, not medical interventions, for trans youth
‘Discredited junk science’ — GLAAD

A 409-page report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services challenges the ethics of medical interventions for youth experiencing gender dysphoria, the treatments that are often collectively called gender-affirming care, instead advocating for psychotherapy alone.
The document comes in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order barring the federal government from supporting gender transitions for anyone younger than 19.
“Our duty is to protect our nation’s children — not expose them to unproven and irreversible medical interventions,” National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said in a statement. “We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas.”
While the report does not constitute clinical guidance, its findings nevertheless conflict with not just the recommendations of LGBTQ advocacy groups but also those issued by organizations with relevant expertise in science and medicine.
The American Medical Association, for instance, notes that “empirical evidence has demonstrated that trans and non-binary gender identities are normal variations of human identity and expression.”
Gender-affirming care for transgender youth under standards widely used in the U.S. includes supportive talk therapy along with — in some but not all cases — puberty blockers or hormone treatment.
“The suggestion that someone’s authentic self and who they are can be ‘changed’ is discredited junk science,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “This so-called guidance is grossly misleading and in direct contrast to the recommendation of every leading health authority in the world. This report amounts to nothing more than forcing the same discredited idea of conversion therapy that ripped families apart and harmed gay, lesbian, and bisexual young people for decades.”
GLAAD further notes that the “government has not released the names of those involved in consulting or authoring this report.”
Janelle Perez, executive director of LPAC, said, “For decades, every major medical association–including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics–have affirmed that medical care is the only safe and effective treatment for transgender youth experiencing gender dysphoria.
“This report is simply promoting conversion therapy by a different name – and the American people know better. We know that conversion therapy isn’t actually therapy – it isolates and harms kids, scapegoats parents, and divides families through blame and rejection. These tactics have been used against gay kids for decades, and now the same people want to use them against transgender youth and their families.
“The end result here will be a devastating denial of essential health care for transgender youth, replaced by a dangerous practice that every major U.S. medical and mental health association agree promotes anxiety, depression, and increased risk of suicidal thoughts and attempts.
“Like being gay or lesbian, being transgender is not a choice, and no amount of pressure can force someone to change who they are. We also know that 98% of people who receive transition-related health care continue to receive that health care throughout their lifetime. Trans health care is health care.”
“Today’s report seeks to erase decades of research and learning, replacing it with propaganda. The claims in today’s report would rip health care away from kids and take decision-making out of the hands of parents,” said Shannon Minter, legal director of NCLR. “It promotes the same kind of conversion therapy long used to shame LGBTQ+ people into hating themselves for being unable to change something they can’t change.”
“Like being gay or lesbian, being transgender is not a choice—it’s rooted in biology and genetics,” Minter said. “No amount or talk or pressure will change that.”
Human Rights Campaign Chief of Staff Jay Brown released a statement: “Trans people are who we are. We’re born this way. And we deserve to live our best lives and have a fair shot and equal opportunity at living a good life.
“This report misrepresents the science that has led all mainstream American medical and mental health professionals to declare healthcare for transgender youth to be best practice and instead follows a script predetermined not by experts but by Sec. Kennedy and anti-equality politicians.”
The White House
Trump nominates Mike Waltz to become next UN ambassador
Former Fla. congressman had been national security advisor

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced he will nominate Mike Waltz to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
Waltz, a former Florida congressman, had been the national security advisor.
Trump announced the nomination amid reports that Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, were going to leave the administration after Waltz in March added a journalist to a Signal chat in which he, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and other officials discussed plans to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen.
“I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States ambassador to the United Nations,” said Trump in a Truth Social post that announced Waltz’s nomination. “From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our nation’s Interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role.”
Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as interim national security advisor, “while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department.”
“Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to make America, and the world, safe again,” said Trump.
Trump shortly after his election nominated U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Trump in March withdrew her nomination in order to ensure Republicans maintained their narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. Federal Courts
Second federal lawsuit filed against White House passport policy
Two of seven plaintiffs live in Md.

Lambda Legal on April 25 filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of seven transgender and nonbinary people who are challenging the Trump-Vance administration’s passport policy.
The lawsuit, which Lambda Legal filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in Baltimore, alleges the policy that bans the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers “has caused and is causing grave and immediate harm to transgender people like plaintiffs, in violation of their constitutional rights to equal protection.”
Two of the seven plaintiffs — Jill Tran and Peter Poe — live in Maryland. The State Department, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the federal government are defendants.
“The discriminatory passport policy exposes transgender U.S. citizens to harassment, abuse, and discrimination, in some cases endangering them abroad or preventing them from traveling, by forcing them to use identification documents that share private information against their wishes,” said Lambda Legal in a press release.
Zander Schlacter, a New York-based textile artist and designer, is the lead plaintiff.
The lawsuit notes he legally changed his name and gender in New York.
Schlacter less than a week before President Donald Trump’s inauguration “sent an expedited application to update his legal name on his passport, using form DS-5504.”
Trump once he took office signed an executive order that banned the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers. The lawsuit notes Schlacter received his new passport in February.
“The passport has his correct legal name, but now has an incorrect sex marker of ‘F’ or ‘female,'” notes the lawsuit. “Mr. Schlacter also received a letter from the State Department notifying him that ‘the date of birth, place of birth, name, or sex was corrected on your passport application,’ with ‘sex’ circled in red. The stated reason was ‘to correct your information to show your biological sex at birth.'”
“I, like many transgender people, experience fear of harassment or violence when moving through public spaces, especially where a photo ID is required,” said Schlacter in the press release that announced the lawsuit. “My safety is further at risk because of my inaccurate passport. I am unwilling to subject myself and my family to the threat of harassment and discrimination at the hands of border officials or anyone who views my passport.”
Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June 2021 announced the State Department would begin to issue gender-neutral passports and documents for American citizens who were born overseas.
Dana Zzyym, an intersex U.S. Navy veteran who identifies as nonbinary, in 2015 filed a federal lawsuit against the State Department after it denied their application for a passport with an “X” gender marker. Zzyym in October 2021 received the first gender-neutral American passport.
Lambda Legal represented Zzyym.
The State Department policy took effect on April 11, 2022.
Trump signed his executive order shortly after he took office in January. Germany, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands are among the countries that have issued travel advisories for trans and nonbinary people who plan to visit the U.S.
A federal judge in Boston earlier this month issued a preliminary injunction against the executive order. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of seven trans and nonbinary people.
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