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Transgender Prisoner Sues Florida to Get Hormone Treatments

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A transgender prisoner is suing the Florida Department of Corrections, claiming she is being denied hormone treatments that were promised when she pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed Reiyn Keohane's suit Monday to force the department to continue hormone treatments she began a month before her September 2013 arrest in Fort Myers.

Without the treatments, Keohane says she suffers from depression. While being held in the men's prison, she attempted to hang herself and later tried to castrate herself.

Keohane was born male but has lived as a female since she was 14. She is now 22.

Keohane said in the lawsuit that the promise of continued hormone treatments in prison was a motivating factor to pleading guilty of stabbing her roommate.

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