The senior medical officer at Guantanamo Bay said over the weekend that the prison would consider offering gender transition assistance to detainees, reports The Miami Herald.

"Anything that a detainee requests from a medical standpoint, we will consider," said the medical officer, identified in a briefing only as "Cmdr. SMO2."

Spanning the 15-year history of the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, military medical staff often state that the United States provides wartime prisoners with healthcare that is on par with that of U.S. troops, the articles states.

While gender transition was not listed as a procedure that prison leaders were considering in its long-term healthcare, the doctor noted in the Herald report, "that's something I would have to address with the patient individually, figure out what needs we would have to do to meet that." 

Among other considerations would be behavioral health, medications, and what type of monitoring the base would have.

Cultural adviser at Guantanamo, a Muslim man named Zaki, called the question regarding gender transition "a unique question. We never heard it before."

Rear Adm. Edward Cashman, commander of the detention center, told reporters that he had no doubt U.S. military medicine could meet the challenge, but that the final decision on whether to fund and execute gender transition assistance would rest with the policymakers in Washington, D.C.

Col. Stephen Gabavics, warden of Guantanamo, stated he'd been asked in the past whether he'd be able to handle a transgender detainee. His response was that the U.S. military prison at Fort Leavenworth was working on developing a policy for Chelsea Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst who infamously leaked classified documents to Wikileaks.

What remains unclear, the article states, is where a detainee could receive gender transition assistance – Congress has forbidden a Guantanamo detainee from being transferred to the United States for any reason. 

About Mackenzie Wolf

Mackenzie Wolf is an editorial intern for Military Times.

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