MACON, Ga. — Ashley Diamond, the Georgia inmate whose lawsuit is making her a protagonist in transgender rights history, said in her first federal court appearance on Monday that she had come to blame herself for being a victim of multiple prison rapes, internalizing the guilt placed on her by corrections officials.

Ms. Diamond, a transgender woman who has been housed in male prisons since entering the system three years ago, said, “If I wasn’t so feminine, maybe if I didn’t talk the way I talked or move the way I moved, I would be less of a victim that way.”

Turning to address the judge directly, she continued in a soft voice: “I also feel a little less human because when I did report things, the very people I wanted help from, Your Honor, would tell me things like, ‘You brought this on yourself.’ “

Judge Marc T. Treadwell of United States District Court nonetheless denied Ms. Diamond’s request that he order her transferred to a lower-security prison. While that might well be “the optimum solution,” higher courts have warned district judges “not to second-guess prison authorities,” he said, and Ms. Diamond had not proved their “deliberate indifference” to her fear of sexual assault and harassment.