By State Representative Viola Davis (D-Stone Mountain)
(630 words)
In the final days of Georgia’s 2025 legislative session, lawmakers raced to push forward legislation that targets transgender Georgians—ignoring urgent crises that demand real solutions. House Democrats walked out in protest of Senate Bill 185, which bans gender-affirming care for incarcerated individuals, in a powerful stand against discrimination and misplaced priorities.
That walkout was not just about standing up for the rights of transgender people—it was also a call to return to the real work of governing, to stop exploiting vulnerable communities as political scapegoats and to focus on the actual emergencies facing Georgians every day.
Consider this: only about five people incarcerated in Georgia prisons currently receive gender-affirming care, according to state officials, yet this small number has sparked multiple bills, hours of heated debate and relentless political posturing. SB 185 and its companion bill, Senate Bill 39, which would expand the ban to include transgender state employees and their dependents, are being used to manufacture outrage and distract the public.
Meanwhile, behind bars, a real crisis is spiraling out of control—one that is costing lives and draining taxpayer dollars. Georgia’s prison system is collapsing under the weight of violence, inadequate staffing, negligence and impunity, and it’s costing taxpayers far more than any healthcare coverage for five individuals ever could cost.
Between 2018 and 2023, Georgia paid out nearly $20 million in legal settlements for deaths and severe injuries in its prison system. These cases include:
- A man left to die of smoke inhalation while locked in his cell ($5 million);
- A transgender woman with severe mental illness who died by suicide after officials ignored her pleas for help ($2.2 million);
- Others who suffered fatal medical neglect, were murdered by cellmates or were denied mental health treatment even after multiple suicide attempts.
These are not isolated incidents. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice released a blistering report exposing systemic failures within the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) including: widespread violence, deliberate misreporting of homicides as “unknown causes” and a refusal to protect incarcerated people from preventable harm. The report concluded that Georgia’s prison system violates the Eighth Amendment by failing to provide safety and humane conditions.
Rather than address these findings, the GDC simply stopped publishing cause-of-death information in its public reports. This isn’t accountability—it’s a cover-up.
And yet, instead of demanding reform, transparency and investment in safety, the Georgia General Assembly is focused on whether five incarcerated people should receive medical care for gender dysphoria. This is not governance. This is a distraction. It is political theater meant to deflect from the very real, very expensive failures of our correctional system.
Let’s be clear: prison is not supposed to be a death sentence. It is a place for rehabilitation and justice—not neglect, torture and secret burials.
If we care about public safety, about fiscal responsibility and about human rights, we must:
- Implement independent oversight of the GDC, including external medical and civil rights monitoring;
- Reinstate public reporting on causes of death and violent incidents;
- Comply with DOJ recommendations and agree to a federal consent decree to enforce necessary reforms;
- And above all, reject SB 185, SB 39 and similar bills that waste time and target people already at risk, while ignoring Georgia’s far more dangerous and costly realities.
We cannot afford to look away. Georgia taxpayers are already paying the price in dollars, dignity and lives lost. It’s time to stop the political stunts and start fixing what’s broken. Every lawmaker who voted for HB 185 should be asked, “How does targeting five transgender individuals help keep Georgians safe?” Meanwhile, nearly $20 million has been paid out in death and abuse settlements, and that’s without factoring in the immeasurable cost of human suffering and lost lives.
Georgia can do better. Georgia must do better.
Representative Viola Davis represents the citizens of District 87, which includes a portion of DeKalb County. She was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2018 and currently serves on the Defense & Veterans Affairs, Health, Insurance, Natural Resources & Environment and Urban Affairs committees.
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