RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) - We know more about the decision to parole Ophelia De'Lonta and when she will walk out of Buckingham Correctional Center to freedom.
The transgender inmate is being granted parole in the middle of a controversial, landmark case to determine whether taxpayers should pay for her sex change surgery. The Virginia Parole Board says the parole decision had nothing to do with the court case.
Ophelia De'Lonta's niece says the D.O.C. is planning a home visit between now and March 26.
De'Lonta's 2004 court settlement allowed her to dress like a woman and get hormone therapy, in prison, to stop the urge to self-castrate. Diagnosed with Gender Identification Disorder, she continued to cut herself despite the hormones, and the legal fight for a state financed sex-reassignment surgery began.