transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
civil-rights activist and convicted criminal who sued the Georgia Department of Corrections twice for housing her with male inmates and refusing to provide medical treatment she'd been receiving since she was a teenager.
Diamond was imprisoned in 2012 for a nonviolent offense and held in a men's facility. While in prison she was denied medically necessary hormones she had been taking for over seventeen years, was beaten and sexually assaulted by inmates with no help from prison guards. From inside the prison, Diamond partnered with the
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white su ...
(SPLC) to file a lawsuit against the
Georgia Department of Corrections
The Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) is an agency of the U.S. state of Georgia operating state prisons. The agency is headquartered in Forsyth, on the former campus of Tift College.
Headquarters
The GDC has its offices in Gibson Hall, lo ...
, settling for an undisclosed amount.
In 2015 Diamond was released on parole and in 2016 received a settlement in the lawsuit, and the Georgia Department of Corrections changed its medical treatment policy for transgender prisoners. The
US Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
became involved, saying that prisons must treat hormone therapy as they would any other medical condition. Beth Litrell of the SPLC attributed the change to Diamond's lawsuit. In 2019, Georgia adopted a new policy governing the treatment of transgender and intersex prisoners that according to ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' was intended to address prisoner safety issues, including assessing placement decisions using input on the prisoner's own views of their safety, and to reassess placements after sexual assault.
In October 2019, Diamond was again arrested and imprisoned on parole violation charges. She was again placed in a men's facility. According to Diamond, by November 2020 she had been sexually assaulted fourteen times by other inmates and prison staff and had been denied hormone treatment therapy. On November 23, 2020, Diamond, the
Southern Baptist
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States. The word ...
family and raised in
Rome, Georgia
Rome is the largest city in and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, it is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia metropolitan area, Rome, Georgia, metropolitan statisti ...
. She has lived as a transgender woman since she was a teenager, starting hormone therapy at age 17. She moved to
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
and began performing in cabarets doing
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed "The Voice", she is one of the bestselling music artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston in ...
impersonations.
Diamond was originally imprisoned in 2012 on burglary charges, for which she was sentenced to ten years. She was also charged with attempted escape during an arrest. She was held at Valdosta State Prison and
Coastal State Prison
Coastal State Prison is a Georgia Department of Corrections medium-security state prison located in Savannah, near Garden City. The facility houses adult male felons and has a capacity of 1836. It was constructed and opened in 1981 and later ren ...
.
After her 2015 release, as part of her eight-year parole, she was required to return to Rome, where she had a 4:30 pm curfew and was unable to find work. She became occasionally homeless and was arrested on a parole violation and returned to prison in October 2019. She was first held in the
Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison
Opened in 1969, Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison (GDCP) is a Georgia Department of Corrections prison for men in unincorporated Butts County, Georgia, near Jackson. The prison holds the state execution chamber. The execution equipment ...