A transgender inmate is suing the commissioner of the Indiana Department of Correction in Michigan City over multiple requests for hormone therapy.

Anthony Loveday, who is housed at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, claims the department's denial of hormone therapy amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

At issue is the department's policy that it will not provide hormone therapy for offenders who did not receive the treatment before they were incarcerated. Loveday did not receive hormone treatment before she was incarcerated more than two years ago.

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Loveday, who was assigned to be male at birth but now identifies as female, is represented by the ACLU of Indiana in the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.

The lawsuit says she "experiences anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation as a result of her condition."

The ACLU of Indiana says in the lawsuit that the 8th Amendment prohibits the government "from remaining deliberately indifferent to the serious medical needs of an inmate."

"If an inmate enters the Department of Correction and is diagnosed with cancer two years into their sentence, the DOC would treat the cancer," one of Loveday's attorneys, Jan Mensz, told IndyStar.

Loveday's issues with medical treatment began two years ago when the Indiana State Prison diagnosed her with gender dysphoria, a mental health condition "that causes her to suffer mental anguish stemming from the discrepancy between her identification as a female and the physical male attributes with which she was born," according to the lawsuit.

Loveday has been receiving "talk therapy" from a mental health professional about twice a month, but on Aug. 18 Loveday submitted a formal grievance requesting hormone therapy.

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A month later, the Department of Correction responded by saying it "has an informal policy ... that if an offender did not enter the DOC already on Hormones, the contractual medical staff nor the IDOC are not under any obligation to provide hormone therapy for offenders who discover they are Transgender while incarcerated.”

A representative from the DOC was not available for comment for this story.

According to the American Psychiatric Association, "gender dysphoria involves a conflict between a person's physical or assigned gender and the gender with which he/she/they identify."

People with gender dysphoria may be uncomfortable with the gender they were assigned, sometimes described as being uncomfortable with their body (particularly developments during puberty) or being uncomfortable with the expected roles of their assigned gender.

Mensz pointed to a 2011 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, Fields v. Smith, in which the court ruled that a 2005 Wisconsin law that barred prison doctors from deciding the best course of treatment for transgender people by denying them access to any type of hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgery while in state custody was unlawful.

The federal government also has addressed several high profile cases of transgender inmates seeking hormone and gender reassignment surgery.

In 2015, Justice Department prosecutor Vanita Gupta said prison officials have the obligation to assess and treat gender dysphoria just as they would any other medical or mental health condition. A transgender inmate had sued the Georgia Department of Correction for its failure to continue her hormone treatment.

Also in 2015, Chelsea Manning, the convicted national-security secrets leaker, was approved for hormone therapy for transition to a woman at the Army's Fort Leavenworth prison.

Call IndyStar reporter Fatima Hussein at (317) 444-6209. Follow her on Twitter: @fatimathefatima.