Louisiana Attorney General has joined a coalition of 23 other states in filing a brief arguing that taxpayers should not have to pay for sex change operations for prison inmates. 

The brief was filed last Tuesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in a case from Indiana. 

“Louisiana taxpayers should never foot the bill for sex changes for inmates. This lunacy was defeated at the ballot box in November. I’m proud to join my fellow attorneys general in supporting Indiana’s law and fighting to put an end to this nonsense,” said Attorney General Murrill.

The attorneys general argue in their brief that states are responsible for the security and healthcare of prison inmates, and “they need the flexibility to do that, on a limited budget funded by taxpayers, with security concerns unique to prisons.” 

In the Indiana case, a federal court blocked an Indiana law that prohibits the payment of any money or use of state resources to provide gender reassignment surgery for an inmate. The court also required the state “to take all reasonable actions to secure plaintiff gender-affirming surgery at the earliest opportunity.” The AGs are asking the Court of Appeals to reverse that lower court ruling. 

The attorneys general also argue that the lower court based its ruling on standards of care from the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH), but those standards are unreliable. In fact, the brief argues that WPATH changed its recommendations based on political concerns. 

Joining Attorney General Murrill in the brief, which was led by Alabama, are the attorneys general of Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. 

You can read the brief here.