Family sues Georgia Dept of Corrections over 2017 Transgender Suicide

 

The parents of Transgender woman Jenna Mitchell are suing the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) over their daughters suicide.  In the lawsuit, GDC says she hung herself while an inmate in a Valdosta State Prison (VSP) and died at the hospital a few days later.

 WALB News 10 reports that Jenna Mitchell was seen with a rope around her neck threatening to hang herself at 1:30 pm.

The guards then taunted her and walked away. When they returned they did not lift her up to stop her strangling and did not call an ambulance when it was determined that she was unconsious. An ambulance was called but not until a tower guard did so later. 

The four defendants in the lawsuit are GDC, the warden at the time, Don Blakely, a correctional officer at the time, James Igou, and the Georgia Board of Regents. The regents board is named because it manages Augusta University’s program called Georgia Correctional Healthcare, which provides health care for inmates, including mental health care. 

Court documents show Mitchell was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to robbery by intimidation in Union County in 2015.

In their lawsuit, Mitchell’s parents claim she died while in VSP because the prison and its employees failed to keep her safe.

 
They believe that violated her rights under the constitution and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The lawsuit said Mitchell was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and gender dysphoria and had a history of hurting herself.

Her parents said in the lawsuit they believe prison staff knew this and knew she intended to commit suicide on December 4, 2017.

The lawsuit focuses a lot on what happened between 1:30 and 2:00 p.m. that day.

Around 1:30 p.m., the suit says Mitchell asked an attendant to find corrections officer, James Igou, and a sergeant, Wallace Richardson.

The lawsuit said Igou went to Mitchell’s cell and saw a noose around her neck.

The suit accuses Igou of taunting her and encouraging her to commit suicide.

Around 1:35 p.m., they say Igou walked away, and at least one other inmate told him Mitchell was committing suicide.

They say he laughed and shouted that she should wait until he got back because he “wanted to see.”
Before he returned, the lawsuit says Mitchell hanged herself.

First Transgender Lutheran Bishop Sends Message of Love and Acceptance

Reverend Dr. Megan Rohrer, (they/them) the first transgender person to become a Bishop in a mainline religion says that the Bible never once said that we should debate how God loves us. "God never once said, 'Let's take a vote before deciding who God loves", said Bishop Rohrer

Reverend Dr. Megan Rohrer is the bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod, overseeing nearly 200 evangelical Lutheran congregations from Central California and Nevada up to Oregon. The bishop is making history, reports ABC 7. 

 “It made the history books because I'm the first openly transgender bishop in the Lutheran Church and maybe in all of the mainline churches across the world,” Rohrer said. Rohrer says becoming bishop as a transgender person was not something they anticipated so soon.

 “God and I are good," Rohrer said. "And so when someone wants to send me a Bible verse to tell me where I'm wrong, I want to send them some of my favorite Bible verses not to like, have a debate with them because, you know, God never once said, 'Let's take a vote before deciding who God loves.' But because like, that's exactly why I think the Bible is such an important book. Like because the people that are going to preach the opposite of me for the rest of my life are just as loved by God as I am. And the book that I think is sacred fills their heart just as much as it fills my heart.”