A federal judge ruled the Indiana Department of Correction’s ban on gender-affirming care is likely unconstitutional, and an inmate from Evansville is at the center of the lawsuit.
The ACLU of Indiana sued the DOC in U.S. District Court on behalf of Autumn Cordellioné, arrested and convicted as Jonathan Richardson in the early 2000s for the murder of her 11-month-old stepdaughter.
According to the initial complaint, Cordellioné was diagnosed in 2020 with gender dysphoria and prescribed a female hormone and testosterone blocker which she has taken since that time.
While the medicine has helped, the lawsuit states Cordellioné continues to experience symptoms of gender dysphoria including depression and anxiety.
“She has engaged in self-harm and has attempted suicide because she could not stand the fact that her sex at birth fails to match the fact that she is a woman and cannot tolerate her male body,” the suit states.
The lawsuit states Cordellioné has lived as a woman to the “extent possible” while in a prison housing only men. She has been permitted gender-affirming items such as makeup and “form fitting clothing.”