An incarcerated transgender woman is suing Donald Trump over an executive order that would forcibly move trans women like her into men’s facilities, exposing her to an “extremely high risk of harassment, abuse, violence, and sexual assault.”
The lawsuit — the first federal complaint responding to Trump’s executive order — was filed by lawyers with the National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Advocates and Defenders.
Trump’s order directs the federal government to recognize only two “immutable” biological sexes: male and female. All government documents must “accurately reflect the holder’s sex” as either male or female, according to the order.
The order also directs the Bureau of Prisons to move trans women into men’s prisons, and cuts inmates’ access to gender-affirming healthcare.
The plaintiff in the new lawsuit, identified anonymously as Maria Moe, is diagnosed with gender dysphoria and began transitioning in middle school. She has been taking feminizing hormones since she was 15 years old, and “during her term of incarceration, she has always been treated as a woman by federal correctional officials and her peers,” according to the complaint.
But on January 21, she was segregated from the general population at a women’s facility, moved into a “special housing unit,” and told that she would be transferred to a men’s prison, the lawsuit states.
On January 25, prison records suddenly classified her as “male,” according to the lawsuit.
She remains in the special housing unit, pending transfer.
“If Maria Moe is transferred to a men’s facility, she will not be safe,” the lawsuit states.
“She will be at an extremely high risk of harassment, abuse, violence, and sexual assault. She may be subject to strip searches by male correctional officers. She may be forced to shower in full view of men who are incarcerated. And she will predictably experience worsening gender dysphoria, which can lead to serious harm, including dramatically increased rates of suicidality and depression,” the suit added.
The lawsuit accuses Trump and administration officials of discriminating against Moe on the basis of sex in violation of her due process rights under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Her transfer to a men’s prison also would violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, the lawsuit states.
The president’s “blanket ban” that denies her affirming healthcare “regardless of medical necessity” will “deprive Maria Moe of essential medication she has taken continuously since she was a teenager, putting her at high risk of serious harm,” the lawsuit states.
Department of Justice policies established in 2012 instructs prison officials to perform individual assessments to determine an inmate’s risk of sexual victimization, including whether they are transgender, to determine where they are housed.
LGBT+ advocates have also warned that eliminating protections for trans women who are at risk of violence conflicts with protections under the Prison Rape Elimination Act.
“This puts them at a severely heightened risk of sexual assault and abuse by other incarcerated persons and prison staff,” the ACLU said in a statement.
Among the more than 140,000 people in federal prisons and jails, about 2,000 — roughly 1 percent — identify as transgender, according to Bureau of Prisons data reviewed by the Marshall Project. In 2022, the bureau spent $153,000 — or less than .01 percent of its overall healthcare budget — on gender-affirming care.
Only 10 trans women in federal prisons were housed in female prisons in 2023, the Marshall Project found.
A lack of gender-accurate housing, compounded by difficulties accessing gender-affirming care, have subjected trans inmates to extreme abuse, The Independent previously reported. Incarcerated trans people are 10 times as likely to report being sexually victimized as other prisoners, according to federal data.
Trump’s executive order “is a direct attack on transgender Americans, deliberately making it harder for people to live their everyday lives. It is cruel, and it is wrong,” according to GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders executive director Ricardo Martinez.
“The administration is trying to create fear and sow chaos by its statements and orders, but no executive action can change the fundamental truth that transgender people are vital members of our families and communities,” Martinez said in a statement. “Like all people, transgender people deserve dignity, respect, and the freedom to live without fear of government-sanctioned harm.”
