Wisconsin Gov. Doyle approved law banning state funds for gender-affirming care for transgender prisoners and forensic patients

On January 6, 2006, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle approved 2005 Assembly Bill 184, enacted as 2005 Wisconsin Act 105, which created Wis. Stat. § 302.386(5m) prohibiting the Department of Corrections from spending state funds, using state resources, or spending federal funds administered by the state to provide or facilitate "hormonal therapy or sexual reassignment surgery to alter the appearance of a prisoner or forensic patient so that the prisoner or forensic patient appears more like the opposite gender." The Assembly had passed the bill 82-15 in September 2005 and the Senate concurred later that year, with Doyle's approval completing enactment.

The ban applied specifically to prisoners and forensic (civilly committed) patients in state custody, and it covered any use of hormone therapy or surgery intended to align a transgender person's appearance with their gender identity, regardless of individual medical necessity as determined by treating clinicians. Legislative proponents cited cost savings as justification for the restriction.

Updates

2010-05-13 — Federal district court ruled Act 105 ban unconstitutional under Eighth Amendment and equal protection [3]

Three transgender Wisconsin prisoners with gender identity disorder sued after their hormone therapy was discontinued under the law. A federal district court ruled Act 105's treatment ban unconstitutional, finding it violated the plaintiffs' Eighth Amendment and equal protection rights, noting hormone therapy was cheaper than alternative treatments the state was still funding.

2011-08-05 — Seventh Circuit upheld permanent injunction against enforcement of the ban [4]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld the permanent injunction against enforcement of the ban, affirming the district court's ruling in Fields v. Smith, 653 F.3d 550 (7th Cir. 2011).