NEW HAVEN – The United States District Court issued an injunction on Friday afternoon in Clark v. Quiros, a lawsuit challenging the Connecticut Department of Correction’s failure to provide gender-affirming care. In the court’s order, Judge Victor A. Bolden imposed a series of deadlines that require the DOC to detail and report efforts to provide healthcare for plaintiff Veronica-May Clark, including gender-affirming surgery. The court held that “an injunction is necessary to ensure that Ms. Clark receives appropriate medical care for her gender dysphoria and does not suffer irreparable harm.”
Friday’s favorable injunctive relief ruling follows a similar win in September 2023, in which Judge Vanessa L. Bryant found in favor of Ms. Clark. Judge Bryant, now retired, held that Ms. Clark experienced “years of documented mental anguish” as a result of the DOC’s deliberate denial of her medical care, despite repeated requests for help.
In Friday’s ruling, the court explained that it was issuing injunctive relief because the Department of Correction “has an obligation to provide adequate medical care to individuals in its custody,” and Ms. Clark “has established an ongoing violation of her constitutional rights”—specifically, the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The State of Connecticut has a constitutional responsibility to provide incarcerated people with medical care. This includes individualized gender-affirming care, which is often critical for the health, well-being, and survival of those with gender dysphoria.
Ms. Clark represented herself when she first filed this lawsuit in 2019. She later secured pro bono representation from Dan Barrett, Elana Bildner and Sapana Anand of the ACLU Foundation of Connecticut; Evan Cohen, Matthew Danzer, and Kelsey Powderly of Finn Dixon & Herling LLP; and Daniel Noble of Krieger Lewin LLP.
“Today’s ruling is a hard-fought victory for trans rights in Connecticut, as well as the rights of incarcerated people,” said Elana Bildner, the ACLU Foundation of Connecticut’s senior staff attorney. “Ms. Clark was extraordinarily brave on the witness stand, and has been a thoughtful, persistent advocate for years. We hope her battle ends now, and that moving forward, we can work collaboratively with DOC to ensure care for Ms. Clark and for other trans people who are incarcerated.”
“The state’s treatment of people seeking gender affirming care, its treatment of incarcerated people, and its attitude towards health care for people in Connecticut matter and are interconnected,” said Sapana Anand, legal fellow at the ACLU Foundation of Connecticut. “Today’s ruling shows that progress in these areas is possible. If the DOC follows through on the directives from the Court, Connecticut can be an example of a system that upholds its constitutional obligation to care for those who are incarcerated.”
“This win is an important contribution to federal case law upholding the civil rights and liberties of transgender people,” said Dan Barrett, ACLU Foundation of Connecticut legal director. “And, Ms. Clark has forced the Department of Correction to create pathways to gender dysphoria care because she would not take ‘no’ for an answer. In the future, rather than spending years attempting to litigate its way out of its own failures, we hope the DOC owns up and provides healthcare to incarcerated people before a lawsuit is necessary.”
Gender dysphoria is a medical diagnosis for someone who experiences the severe distress that can occur when their true gender does not match with their outward appearance and/or the sex they were assigned at birth. When gender dysphoria develops, it can be treated with a standard medical protocol designed to alleviate the person’s distress. Not all transgender people develop gender dysphoria, and being transgender is not an illness.
For a copy of the decision: https://www.acluct.org/sites/default/files/2024-07-29_memorandum_of_decision_and_order.pdf
For more about the case: https://www.acluct.org/en/cases/clark-v-department-correction
For a copy of the 2023 decision:
https://www.acluct.org/sites/default/files/docket_no._194_memorandum_of_decision.pdf
