Washington state Dept of Corrections seeks ‘Gender Affirming Medical Specialist’ for 6-figure salary despite hiring freeze

On Dec 2, Democratic Governor Jay Inslee issued a directive for a hiring freeze in response to $10-12 billion budget deficit, despite record revenues. On Dec 6, The Department of Corrections Health Services Division posted the job for the Gender Affirming Medical Specialist in Thurston County and will be tasked with analyzing, directing and coordinating the medical care offered by the state to transgender and “gender diverse incarcerated individuals.”

The salary range for the job is $198,648 – $267,228 and would be part of a team for WADOC that includes a Gender Affirming Program Coordinator and Gender Affirming Patient Navigators. The perk package includes up to 25 paid vacation days a year, 8 hours of paid sick leave per month, 12 paid holidays a year, a “generous retirement plan,” access to “Flex Spending Accounts,” “Dependent Care Assistance,” and more.

Yet, more pressing issues such as safety, recidivism, and mental health treatment remain underfunded.

The Gender Affirming Medical Specialist is expected to be the “treating consultant for transgender patients in conjunction with the on-site staff.” The physician will manage “assessment for and treatment with hormones and consideration for surgical intervention.”

The person who gets the job will be tasked with “Direct patient care of all transgender individuals statewide in DOC” by acting “as a treating consultant for transgender patients in conjunction with the on-site staff. This will include managing assessment for and treatment with hormones and consideration for surgical intervention.”

Additionally, the individual will “Represent WA DOC gender affirming program in leadership discussion, strategic planning, and meetings with various stakeholders to include but not limited to Legislators, Office of Corrections Ombuds, and Disability Rights Washington.”

Hundreds of thousands of dollars has already been spent on gender reassignment surgeries, hormone replacement therapies and other “gender-affirming healthcare” for transgender inmates.

Additionally transgender inmates that are biologically male have been accused of identifying as females in order to be housed with biologically female inmates. Female inmates have come forward to say that biological male inmates pose a safety risk in women-only jails.

Bryan Kim, also known as Amber FayeFox Kim, is a transgender inmate who was convicted in 2008 on two counts of aggravated first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Kim was placed in the Washington Corrections Center for Women but was moved back to the Monroe Correctional Facility for men in 2023 because of “ongoing safety and security concerns,” the first time a transgender female inmate was returned to a men’s prison. Kim was found “laying on the floor completely nude from the waist down with their cellmate … on top of them also nude from the waist down actively having sex.”

Another inmate known as Jonathan or Jazzy, received multiple complaints from female inmates of grooming, making persistent sexual advances, and committing sexual assault, including one incident where a female prisoner woke up to find Jazzy with an erection touching her inappropriately.

Though inmates are not required to disclose their gender identity, according to WADOC, there are more than 250 inmates in the system who identify as transgender. Heavily redacted documents obtained by The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI showed approximately 62 trans-identifying male prisoners in Washington, as of October 2023, accounting for approximately 0.5 percent of the prisoner population. Some of the crimes that landed them in jail included rape, rape of a child and viewing and dealing child pornography. In the documents were also multiple substantiated instances of "inmate-on-inmate sexual harassment."