Attorneys push for sex reassignment surgery for California prison inmate

Attorneys representing a transgender prison inmate are asking a federal judge to stick with his order that California officials must immediately provide the inmate with sex reassignment surgery.

They filed arguments late Wednesday opposing any delay while the state corrections department appeals the decision issued by U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar of San Francisco earlier this month.

Tigar ruled that the surgery is medically necessary for 51-year-old Michelle-Lael Norsworthy, whose birth name is Jeffrey Bryan Norsworthy.

It is just the second time nationwide that a judge has directed a state prison system to provide the surgery, but the previous order in a Massachusetts case was overturned last year and is being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Norsworthy’s attorneys say the state should not get in the way of care that “is urgent and critical” to her health.