Kamala Harris, vice president of the United States, said that she had worked “behind-the-scenes” to get sex changes for California prisoners during her tenure as California Attorney General. This was despite state policy being against it at the time.

According to The Washington Blade, Harris boasted about bypassing the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation in order to provide medical services to transgender prisoners, including sex change surgeries. This was despite denying a request for surgery to an inmate back in April 2015. Harris said that sometimes she had to go against her own beliefs to achieve her goals during her failed presidential campaign for 2020. However, she insisted she worked “behind-the-scenes” to make sure that transgender prisoners were given access to medical services, including sex-change surgeries.

According to The Blade, Harris faced criticism in January 2019 for her anti LGBT record as California Attorney General when her office refused sex-change surgeries for inmates. The Blade reported that Harris and other state attorneys denied Michelle-Lael norsworthy, a transgender prisoner, her request for a sex change surgery in an April 2015 court filing.

The brief states that “Norsworthy’s gender dysphoria has been treated over the past 20 years and there is no indication her condition has worsened enough to require sex-reassignment now, rather than wait until the case results in a final judgement on the merits.”

In an effort to defend herself Harris claimed that she had provided transgender prisoners with the sex changes she felt they “needed” or “deserved”.

Harris told a Washington Blade reporter that he was “vehemently opposed” to that particular issue and that he had worked behind the scenes in order to make sure that transitioning inmates received the medical care they needed, deserved and required.

According to The Washington Blade, Harris stated that she helped the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation pave a way for transgender prisoners to receive “transition related care”, which included sex change surgery.

Harris stated during the press conference that “we have to stop vilifying individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identities, and that we need to understand this when we talk about a specific transgender group.”

Harris stated during the press conference that “for too long, they have been subject to bias and a lack understanding about their circumstances and their physical and other needs.”

Prisons are struggling to meet the demand for sex change surgeries since California started providing them to transgender prisoners.

CalMatters reports that in the California budget year 2021-2022, 270 transgender prisoners requested “gender affirming” surgeries. This was a substantial increase from the 99 requests made the year before. CalMatters predicted that 348 gender affirming surgeries would be performed in 2023 and 462 in 2024.

According to a new documentary series titled “Cruel & Unusual Punishment”, produced by the Independent Women’s Forum, retired Los Angeles County Sheriff Detective Servant Richard Valdemar has said that California’s policies on transgender inmate inmate housing have led to “an unprecedented rise in violence.”

“It happens everywhere, in the federal system. Valdemar said, “I have friends who work in the Bureau of Prisons Federal System and this is happening in Arizona. The important thing is that the public is unaware of it.”