The Trump administration has officially rescinded guidelines meant to protect transgender inmates in federal prison, part of the White House’s larger attempts to eliminate government recognition of trans people.
The Bureau of Prisons will rescind the Transgender Offender Manual “effective immediately,” according to a memo from the bureau’s acting director, William Lothrop, obtained by The Intercept.
The move is meant to bring federal prisons in line with the administration’s executive orders on sex and gender, which declare that the federal government only recognizes two sexes assigned at birth, male and female, bars housing trans people in prison facilities matching their gender identity, and directs prison authorities to cut off spending on sometimes life-saving gender-affirming medical care for trans inmates.
The offender manual, last updated under the Biden administration, had instructed prison officials to consider the unique violence faced by trans people in prison when making housing assignments, and it shielded trans women behind bars from searches by male guards and intentional misgendering by prison staff.
More than one-third of trans people in prisons and jails experience sexual violence, the highest reported level of any group, according to a 2018 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
While the prison bureau has officially rescinded the rules, the Trump administration’s larger plans for trans people behind bars are partially on hold, thanks to multiple lawsuits from inmates.
On Monday, a judge in one suit issued a ruling halting the medical and transfer plans, finding that such changes could violate the Eighth Amendment’s bar on cruel and unusual punishment.
The ruling meant there are now 13 trans inmates covered under temporary injunctions.
There are an estimated 1,500 trans women in federal prison, about two dozen of whom live in women’s facilities.
Last week, the Bureau of Prisons laid out its own new guidelines for trans inmates, ending referrals for gender-affirming surgery and prohibitions around male guards searching transgender women.
The guidelines noted that despite the new policies, the bureau still has an “obligation to comply with Federal law and regulations,” including the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act, the landmark federal law Democratic administration’s used to support the previous transgender treatment manual.
