Back in April, we told you about a California inmate who was suing the state for gender reassignment surgery. Her name is Lyralisa Stevens, and she had silicone implants in her breasts and injections in her hips to look more feminine before she was incarcerated, but was sent to a male prison because she still has a penis. Stevens called this “cruel and unusual punishment” because she is, for all intents and purposes, a woman and should be incarcerated in a female prison.

There's a woman in a Virginia state prison in a similar situation. Only she's so desperate to be rid of "that thing" between her legs that she's attempted to remove it herself more than once.

Her name's Ophelia De'lonta, and her most recent castration attempt was this past October. She used prison-issue disposable razors.

Ophelia has filed a lawsuit with the state requesting gender reassignment surgery. And she says if she loses, she will continue to attempt the surgery herself, despite the possibility of it killing her.

Psychiatry professor George R. Brown at East Tennessee State University, who specializes in gender identity disorder, says, “This is not a choice. Transsexuals are born and not made. If you didn't have this condition, why would you want to have your genitals removed, if not by a competent surgeon but by your own hand?”

Something to think about, we suppose … though clearly, there are many transsexuals who aren’t as precipitous as De’lonta.