Ashley Diamond

Ashley Diamond (born 1978) is an American transgender civil-rights activist, singer, and actress. She is known for suing the Georgia Department of Corrections twice for incarcerating her with male inmates and refusing to provide her with medical treatment she had been receiving since she was a teenager.

Diamond was imprisoned in 2012 for a nonviolent offense and held in a men's facility. While in prison she was denied medically necessary hormones she had been taking for over seventeen years, was beaten and sexually assaulted by inmates with no help from prison guards. From inside the prison, Diamond partnered with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to file a lawsuit against the Georgia Department of Corrections, settling for an undisclosed amount.

In 2015, Diamond was released on parole and in 2016 received a settlement in the lawsuit, and the Georgia Department of Corrections changed its medical treatment policy for transgender prisoners. The US Department of Justice became involved, saying that prisons must treat hormone therapy as they would any other medical condition. Beth Litrell of the SPLC attributed the change to Diamond's lawsuit. On January 20, 2023, shortly before the trial was set to start, Diamond moved to voluntarily dismiss the suit in order to focus on her recovery.

Early life, work, and imprisonment Diamond was born in 1978 to a large Southern Baptist family and raised in Rome, Georgia.

After her 2015 release, as part of her eight-year parole, she was required to return to Rome, where she had a 4:30 pm curfew and was unable to find work.