Inmate can’t force Oregon to pay for sex change

PORTLAND – An Oregon prison inmate has lost a lawsuit to force the state to pay for a sex-change operation and to require a transfer to a women’s prison.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice Stewart ruled that inmate Anny May Stevens could not pursue a federal lawsuit because Stevens had previously lost the same suit in state court.

Stewart also ruled that it was reasonable for the Oregon Department of Corrections to assign inmates to a men’s or a women’s prison based on their anatomical sex – not their gender identity.

Otherwise, the judge said, inmates could request the opposite-sex prison based on personal preference.

Stevens is serving an 18-year sentence for manslaughter in the stabbing death of a man in downtown Portland in 1997.