Last Updated 22:18:29 UTC Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Mason “Adree” Edmo (Courtesy: Facebook)

US — Boise, Idaho. A man who sexually assaulted an adolescent child is being praised by mainstream media as a civil rights hero after winning a landmark lawsuit against the Idaho Department of Correction (IDOC) that is expected to make him the first inmate in the state to undergo gender-affirming plastic surgery. If provided the surgery, the male convict will be transferred to a women’s prison pursuant to IDOC policy.

In 2011, Adree Edmo raped a 15-year-old, performing oral sex on the underage boy after the teen fell asleep on the couch at a house party. Mr Edmo pleaded guilty to the crime of sexual abuse of a minor under 16. He is currently serving a 10-year sentence with no chance of parole.

Now aged 31, Mr Edmo claims he has “felt like a girl” from childhood, when he played with Barbies, bonded closely with his sisters, and developed crushes on boys in grade school.

Mason Edmo IDOC Offender Details
Mason Edmo IDOC Offender Details

Child Sexual Offender Fights for Gender-Affirming Surgery to End His “Emotional Pain”

A prison psychiatrist and prison psychologist both determined that Mr Edmo has gender dysphoria, a condition that causes him to identify as a woman despite being male. Following the diagnosis, the IDOC provided Mr Edmo with medical hormones that would gradually feminize his appearance.

Mason "Adree" Edmo
Mason “Adree” Edmo. (Credit: Idaho Department of Correction)

The inmate styled his hair, and adorned himself with makeup, as well as with undergarments he had modified to look feminine.

Not satisfied, the sex offender made a series of suicide attempts beginning in 2014, and attempted to castrate his own testicles in 2015. He successfully severed one testicle, which the hospital was able to reattach. Mr Edmo later became a routine self-cutter. He claims that his “emotional pain” is too great, and will not end until the Idaho DOC provides him with the gender-affirming surgery he desires.

Mr Edmo sued the IDOC, demanding gender-affirming surgery. Presiding Judge B Lynn Winmill ruled in favor of the convicted child sexual predator.

The ruling sparked taxpayer outrage, and the state of Idaho is appealing.

Judge B. Lynn Winmill
Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled in favor of Mason “Adree” Edmo, finding that the Idaho Department of Correction should not deprive convicted child sex abuser Edmo of taxpayer-funded, gender-affirming surgery. (Courtesy: KIFI: Local News 8)

Taxpayers’ Outrage

Taxpayers who oppose the use of their money to reward an imprisoned criminal with expensive elective surgery are fighting back with an online petition on MoveOn.org. The petition, created by taxpayer David Jones, has gathered well over 5,160 signatures, with more pouring in at press time.

Idaho taxpayer Micky Dunn wrote, “I [definitely] do not think the tax payers should have to pay for the surgery. Make him work & earn the money like everyone else does when they want or need something. It’s his own fault he’s in there. We are already paying for his food, room & board, etc.”

Brady Summers says his partner of two years, Mason "Adree" Edmo, terrorized him throughout their two-year partnership, subjecting him to beatings and forceful rape.
Brady Summers says his partner of two years, Mason “Adree” Edmo, terrorized him throughout their two-year partnership, subjecting him to beatings and forceful rape. (Courtesy: Brady Summers via KIFI: Local News 8)

Pattern of Abuse

Mr Edmo, who was named Mason Edmo at birth, also has a record of intimate partner violence. “He would beat me on a constant basis,” Mr Edmo’s male ex-partner, Brady Summers, tearfully recalled in an on-camera interview with KIFI: Local News 8.

“I had to keep my head low. I had to be careful what I said, careful what I did. And the final straw of me escaping that was him beating me with a frying pan.”

In addition to the routine beatings, Mr Summers said that his ex violently raped him. “He was a predator. He, on several occasions, had his way with me. It was brutal.”

Mr Summers added: “It’s not right that we as taxpayers have to be involved with this. He never once thought about his victims, our emotional sanity.”

Mr Edmo also has convictions for felony fraud and driving under the influence.

UPDATES

Battle Rages On

In late August 2019, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Judge Winmill’s ruling, finding that prison officials were “deliberately indifferent to Edmo’s gender dysphoria, in violation of the Eighth Amendment.” The Eighth Amendment is a prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments.

Idaho plans to appeal the ruling. “We cannot divert critical public dollars away from the higher priorities of keeping the public safe and rehabilitating offenders,” Governor Brad Little said in a statement. “The hardworking taxpayers of Idaho should not be forced to pay for a convicted sex offender’s gender reassignment surgery when it is contrary to the medical opinions of the treating physician and multiple mental health professionals.” Two additional physicians had agreed with the inmate’s original treatment plan.

Many news outlets laud Mr Edmo’s successful landmark lawsuit, with few naming the crime he is imprisoned for.

Supreme Court Denies Request to Put Edmo’s Surgery On Hold

On Thursday, May 21, the US Supreme Court denied the IDOC’s request to put Mr Edmo’s surgery on hold while the state waits to see if the appeal will be heard.

Mr Edmo will be able to continue receiving pre-surgical treatments, and potentially undergo gender-affirming plastic surgery while court procedures are pending.

Mr Edmo is expected to be released from prison in July 2021.

UPDATE 21:04:16 UTC August 24, 2019: 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling
UPDATE 22:18:29 UTC Tuesday, May 26, 2020: Supreme Court won’t put surgery on hold

Read more on this story

Supreme Court won’t put transgender inmate surgery on hold
KMVT
BOISE, Idaho (AP) – The U.S. Supreme Court won’t put an Idaho transgender inmate’s gender confirmation surgery on hold while a lawsuit over the procedure moves forward.

Court Says Idaho Must Provide Gender Confirmation Surgery To Transgender Inmate
NPR
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the state of Idaho must provide gender confirmation surgery to inmate Adree Edmo.

State Must Provide Gender Confirmation Surgery To Idaho Inmate Adree Edmo
Boise State Public Radio
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the state of Idaho must provide sex reassignment surgery to inmate Adree Edmo.

State Ordered to Pay for Surgery for Transgender Prison Inmate from Pocatello Area
Idaho State Journal
A U.S. District Court judge Thursday ruled the IDOC and its contractor for health services must provide gender confirmation surgery to a transgender prisoner from the Pocatello area who has been asking for the procedure for years.

Victim of transgender inmate speaks out
LocalNews8.com
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) – Brady Summers dated Mason Edmo, now Adree Edmo, for two years.

IDOC Offender Search Details
Idaho Department of Correction
MASON DEAN EDMO #94691 Mailing Address: IDAHO STATE CORRECTIONAL CENTER B BLOCK PO Box 70010 Boise, ID 83707 Status: Age: 31 Phone Number: 208-331-2760 Offense SEXUAL ABUSE OF A CHILD UNDER 16 Sentencing County BANNOCK Case No. CR11-11293 Sentence Satisfaction Date 07/03/2021

Transgender inmate says surgery is life or death. Idaho officials say it’s more complex
Idaho Statesman
On a late afternoon in September 2015, a 27-year-old transgender inmate named Adree Edmo wrote a note in her cinder block prison cell in Idaho.

5 COMMENTS

  1. This isn’t a woman. This is a man. That raped a little boy. Who is going to end that kids “emotional pain” ?

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  2. Mason Edmo was born a man & will always be a man, no matter what is done to his body. Why worry about his mental state while he is incarcerated. Does anyone in the court system care about the mental status of the young man Mason raped before going to prison? Do the courts care about the abuse Mason has given those in prison because of his deviant mind? I will pray for his spiritual deliverance. He definitely needs it.

    15
  3. Omg! This is disgusting. We should all be ashamed of ourselves for electing these judges. That 30k should have gone to the boy who was raped to cover the therapy bills he will have the rest of his life.

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  4. The way I see it, since you lose ur rights after being convicted and going to prison, that says it all. This guy has zero rights to any kind of elective surgery. He also needs to stay in the prison designed for his body, not his mind. Period. The other inmate who was fortunate enough to talk his way into a woman’s prison and then went on to rape a woman, well….any idiot inmate can claim to be trans in order to get access to females. That other prison is so liable if this is true. Trans need to stay in prisons that reflect the bodies they were born in, not the ones they one-day hope to be in. That’s not fair or safe for women who are physically women to have a physically born man locked in with them at night.

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  5. This individual is a violent offender who has attacked female inmates in prison. Absolutely vile and entitled for him to think that, after violating a child, he deserves a taxpayer funded ELECTIVE surgery. He’s a man, looks like a man, and will ALWAYS be a man and a pedophile.

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