MARIE KING is pushing eighty. She’s lean, with a lined face and shoulder-length hair that she’s dyed cherry red. In 2021, she experienced a medical emergency that put her in Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport, Maine. When she was ready for discharge, medical staff determined that King could not return to her prior assisted living facility because of trauma she’d experienced there. They placed a call to Sunrise Assisted Living in Jonesport, one of nine facilities in the state then operated by Adult Family Care Homes of Maine. Sunrise had room for King, said Rhonda Chambers, a co-owner of Adult Family Care Homes. But when Chambers learned that King was transgender—and could be placed in a semiprivate room with another woman—Chambers said the facility would not take King.
These exchanges were clearly documented. King’s social worker at the hospital decided to contact GLAD, the Boston-based organization devoted to legal defense and advocacy on LGBTQ issues. GLAD filed a complaint charging that King’s admission was denied because of her gender. “The failure to treat a woman who is transgender appropriately and respectfully as a woman leads to profound harm,” the complaint reads, harm that can include struggles with anxiety and depression, and that can even lead to suicide. […]
Click here to read the full piece. This story was originally published by The Baffler on January 8, 2024.
