Allard

I respectfully dissent. Prison officials did not act with deliberate indifference with regard to Allard’s gender dysphoria. Instead, they provided medical treatment for her condition. She was prescribed anti-depressant drugs and was provided counseling.

Notwithstanding the prison’s attempts to alleviate Allard’s psychological plight, she maintains that the officials acted with deliberate indifference toward her. However, they did not categorically deny medical treatment. The prison’s dysphoria committee implemented a policy denying female hormone therapy unless medical indications for the hormones were present. The majority construes this policy as a blanket denial of treatment based on a serious medical need. However, the committee policy reflects, at most, a difference in medical opinion as to the appropriateness of hormone therapy. The gender dysphoria committee found hormone therapy appropriate treatment for those prisoners with medical indications. The fact that other doctors differ in their opinion as to the appropriateness of such therapy for individuals without medical indications does not support a finding of deliberate indifference. As this court has consistently held,…

MEMORANDUM *

Former California state prisoner, James/Jennifer Allard appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of prison officials and Allard’s 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action claiming violation of the Eighth Amendment stemming from the officials’ alleged, deliberate indifference to Allard’s condition of gender identity disorder. See Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 104 , 97 S.Ct. 285 , 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976).

It is now undisputed that the appellant suffered from such a disorder, that appellant repeatedly sought hormone therapy treatment for it between 1995 and 1998, and that the disorder constituted a serious medical need. See Meriwether v. Faulkner, 821 F.2d 408, 412-13 (7th Cir.1987). The district court correctly recognized that during the period in question, the California Medical Facility, where Allard was incarcerated, was applying a department-wide policy in a manner that denied such therapy for gender identity disorder, regardless of the medical recommendations for treatment of any given individual. The district court nevertheless granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants because it found that they had established that the denial of hormone therapy…