After the state of Georgia passed S.B. 185, a law that removed funding for gender-affirming healthcare in prisons, five incarcerated transgender persons filed suit to enjoin it. S.B. 185 went into effect in May and directed prison doctors to begin tapering incarcerated patients off hormone therapy treatments and provide them with counseling. The case is Benjamin et al. v. Commissioner, Georgia Department of Corrections et al., Case Number 25-14263, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
After issuing a temporary pause on the law in September 2025, a Georgia federal district court judge issued a permanent injunction in December that partially blocked the law. In granting the injunction, the judge rejected the state’s argument that it could determine how to medically treat its prisoners, just as it could set restrictions on minors receiving gender-affirming care. Although the judge did not determine that accommodating all inmates’ requests for hormone therapy was mandatory, she did find that physicians must make healthcare decisions for prisoners based on individual determinations of medical need, and not with respect to their status as prisoners.
The state immediately appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, where the case remains pending. Complete briefing of the case will not conclude until April 2026, although several conservative states have signed onto an amicus brief supporting Georgia’s position.
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