Transgender women incarcerated in federal prisons have been placed in isolation, told they will be transferred to men’s prisons and advised they will lose access to gender-affirming medical treatments in response to Donald Trump’s executive order “defending women from gender ideology extremism”, according to civil rights advocates and people behind bars.
LGBTQ+-rights lawyers say the moves will have major consequences for the health and safety of trans people in federal custody, and blatantly violate federal laws and a range of constitutional protections.
The executive order on “gender ideology” was announced on Trump’s first day in office, and is part of a flurry of executive actions targeting trans rights and LGBTQ+ education.
It asserts that “sexes are not changeable” and that the US government no longer recognizes trans people. It calls for a broad rollback of anti-discrimination protections, and includes a directive that the attorney general and homeland security secretary “shall ensure males are not detained in women’s prisons or housed in women’s detention centers” and that no federal funds go to gender-affirming treatment or procedures for people in custody.
The order does not include specifics on how prisons should implement those directives, and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and White House did not respond to repeated questions. But reports from inside federal women’s prisons suggest a swift and chaotic crackdown on trans people in the first week of the new administration, though the scale of the impacts so far is unclear.
Staff at Federal Medical Center (FMC) Carswell, a US women’s prison in Texas that houses people with special medical needs, took actions within days of the order, according to attorneys and one resident. Officers went to trans women’s cells one by one and ordered them out, according to one incarcerated resident, a trans man housed with the women. He said he witnessed the actions and requested anonymity due to concerns about safety and retaliation.
“The officers yelled at these women: ‘Come right now, leave your things. You don’t have time to pack,’” the man said in Spanish. “The officials were degrading them and saying disgusting things, like: ‘We don’t have to call you women anymore. Where you’re going, you’re going to be a man.’”
As one trans woman was trying to pack her bra, an official laughed at her and said: “You won’t need that where you’re going,” he recalled. “The women were screaming and crying, saying: ‘Where are you taking us?’ It was so humiliating.”
He said the women were taken to segregated housing, a form of solitary confinement similar to placements people face when they are being disciplined.
He said it appeared roughly a dozen trans women had been taken, but it’s unclear how many in total have been affected. FMC Carswell housed 58 people who identified as trans or intersex as of 2022, according to a federal report. BOP did not respond to inquiries about the actions.
The man also said staff told him and other trans men they would be losing access to hormone treatments. He had already missed one scheduled appointment, he said. One staffer told them they might also be placed in solitary “because we don’t know how you’re going to act once you’re taken off of your [hormone] shots”, he said.
Susan Beaty, a senior attorney for the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, who represents roughly 20 trans people in federal prisons, said clients have reached out from Carswell and other BOP facilities with similar stories. “Prison staff are clearly emboldened by the transphobia of the administration,” Beaty said.
Two legal non-profits, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, filed a lawsuit on Sunday on behalf of one trans woman in BOP custody, referred to as Maria Moe. Moe has lived as a woman and taken hormones continuously since she was a teenager and never been in a men’s prison or stopped treatments, the suit said. Last week, the BOP changed her identification from “female” to “male”, placed her in segregated housing and told her she would be transferred to a men’s prison, according to the complaint.
Shannon Minter, NCLR legal director, said he was aware of more than a dozen trans women in BOP custody across multiple states who had been similarly affected by the order, and that he knows of one woman already transferred to a men’s prison, where she was placed in solitary confinement. He said trans people had been told gender-affirming prescriptions would not be renewed.
“People are terrified they’re going to be deliberately put in housing where their chances of being sexually assaulted are extremely high,” he said. “There is no question that as a result of this policy, there will be more rapes.”
On Thursday, the non-profits and two law firms filed another complaint on behalf of three incarcerated trans women, saying they were taken out of their cells and placed in isolation. They were later returned to general population, but told they were facing imminent transfer to men’s prisons. Two of the women were previously sexually assaulted in BOP men’s facilities, the suit said.
One plaintiff, Sara Doe, was able to call home, prompting her mother and sister to email prison officials, according to the complaint, writing: “Sending her to an all-male prison will be the end of her. No one deserves this. There needs to be another way, we beg for your sympathy. She will get sexually assaulted and even possibly killed for being who she is … This could mean life or death and she has not received a death penalty as her sentence.”
A judge temporarily blocked Maria Moe’s transfer to a men’s prison, her lawyers confirmed late Thursday.
A Department of Justice survey released in 2015 suggested that trans people were nine times more likely to be sexually assaulted and harassed in prison than cisgender residents, a crisis fueled by their placements in facilities that don’t match their gender.
The Prison Rape Elimination Act (Prea), a longstanding federal law, dictates that incarcerated people must be screened for their sexual assault risk when officials are deciding their housing, and that the assessment must consider whether they are LGBTQ+.
Trump’s order suggests this section of Prea should be changed “through amendment, as necessary”, a move that would require legislation by Congress. A blanket policy forcing trans women into men’s prisons, and the initial rushed implementation without individualized assessments for the women being transferred, directly violate Prea, legal experts said.
Li Nowlin-Sohl, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, said it was a “huge red flag” that the order seeks to undo Prea protections: “It’s an acknowledgement there’s a very real threat and in fact certainty of violence for many trans women.”
Maria Moe’s lawsuit argues that Trump’s order violates equal protection laws, constitutes sex discrimination and amounts to cruel and unusual punishment under the eighth amendment.
Data suggests there are more than 2,000 trans people in federal custody who could be affected. Trump’s order does not apply to state prison systems and local jails.
Cutting off people’s healthcare would be catastrophic, advocates said. Nowlin-Sohl noted that trans people who have already had certain gender-affirming surgeries no longer produce estrogen or testosterone, making hormone treatment a necessity.
“We’re talking about people who’ve been on hormones and in women’s facilities for years. This is crucial to their health and daily living,” she said. “There are also people who have been working so hard to get appropriate housing and healthcare, and they’ve just achieved this, and it’s now being taken away. A lot of folks are feeling hopelessness.”
Jasmine Tasaki, co-managing executive director of Black and Pink, a group that supports incarcerated LGBTQ+ people, said she was concerned about the myriad ways the prisons will target trans people beyond incorrect housing placements. That could include denying access to appropriate clothing, depriving people of gender-specific commissary items like certain hair products, and constant misgendering. She said trans people have long been subject to prolonged periods of solitary in the name of their own safety, something she experienced while imprisoned.
“Verbal and physical abuse is now going to be encouraged,” she said. She fears some may be forced to go back in the closet for their safety: “To get their meals on time and be treated like a human being, they may need to assume an incorrect gender identity to protect themselves.”
Jennifer Love Williams, a Black and Pink organizer and board co-chair, who is also formerly incarcerated, said she and other trans women suffered beatings in men’s prisons and there was never accountability. “Prison is already a toxic, violent place,” she said. Hormone therapy is life-saving, she added. “The administration is saying: ‘We don’t care about you. You are nothing. We don’t give a shit if you die.’”
The trans man in Carswell said he had been receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy for eight years. He experienced a denial of care when he transferred prisons last year and lost access to hormones for two months. “It impacted me mentally and physically,” he said. “I got depressed. I lost my appetite. I isolated myself. I thought about taking my own life.”
“I’m afraid I’m going to get sick and be unstable and unwell,” he said of the possibility of seeing his care cut off again. “It’s cruel for them to just take us off this medicine really suddenly.”
He said he would not let the policies strip him of his dignity: “I’m happy to be the person that I am. They want to try to tell me that I’m something different, but I know who I am inside, and that’s something they will never be able to take away from me. We’re not just going to sit back and let this happen to us. We’re going to keep fighting.”
