Transgender woman, former inmate putting life back together
Ashley Diamond is struggling with painful memories of her time behind bars in Georgia.
A transgender woman, Diamond has trouble sleeping, is constantly looking over her shoulder and is uncomfortable with people standing behind her. Diamond was thrust into the national spotlight this year when she filed suit against the Georgia Department of Corrections, alleging mistreatment. At the heart of the case was the state's refusal to give her the hormone treatment she said she requires for her gender identity condition.
Advocates say Diamond, 37, won an important victory for transgender rights in April when the state overhauled its policy for treating inmates like her. The change came just days after the U.S. Department of Justice weighed in on her case, saying Georgia's policy was unconstitutional. Conservative groups, meanwhile, are questioning the effectiveness of the hormone treatment while citing the cost to taxpayers.
Diamond is writing a memoir about her time in prison and mentioned a possible reality show starring herself. She hopes to get back into singing, a skill she picked up performing in a Baptist church choir. Before she went behind bars she was known for her dead-on Whitney Houston impersonations.
Read more of Diamond's story here on myajc.com.
About the Author
Jeremy Redmon is an award-winning journalist, essayist and educator with more than three decades of experience reporting for newspapers. He has written for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 2005.
