Trump’s Order Takes Aim at Transgender People in Prison

Among the dozens of executive orders that President Donald Trump signed on his first day in office for his second term, one targets transgender people incarcerated in the federal prison system.The order “​​defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government” was fundamentally an attack on transgender people, arguing that “ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women.” The order instructed the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security to “ensure that males are not detained in women’s prisons” or immigration detention centers. It went on to mandate that the federal prison system “shall ensure that no Federal funds are expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”Transgender people make up a tiny fraction of those held in federal prisons, the only prisons that the president has direct authority over. Among the more than 140,000 people in federal prisons and jails, about 2,000 — roughly 1% — identify as transgender, according to Bureau of Prisons data. In 2022, the bureau spent $153,000 — 0.01% of its overall health care budget — on gender-affirming hormone therapy, former Director Colette Peters told Congress.Peters resigned from her post on Trump’s first day in office this week. It will be up to her replacement, who has yet to be named, to implement Trump’s order. The press office at the Bureau of Prisons did not respond to requests for comment.Life in prison is dangerous for many, and for transgender people especially so. Not only are they at risk for extortion and assault, they are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse — a danger that, for trans women, is exacerbated by being held in men’s prisons. Of the 1,300 trans women in federal prisons, only 10 were housed in female prisons in 2023. The bureau’s policies are outlined in the Transgender Offender Manual — which was in effect during Trump’s first presidency and was revised slightly during Biden’s. The manual calls for housing decisions for transgender people to be made on a case-by-case basis.“This wasn’t a ‘liberal’ thing but just a safe practice that comported with the law,” said Alix McLearen, who led the drafting and implementation of the manual when she oversaw women and special populations at the Bureau of Prisons.Still, individual cases have given rise to legal challenges. In one case that went to trial in federal court in Tallahassee, Florida, last week, a cisgender woman serving time in federal prison argued that being housed with transgender women — who used shared bathroom and shower facilities with flimsy curtains — violated her privacy. With help from pro bono lawyers, Rhonda Fleming challenged the federal prison system’s transgender housing policy, arguing that the bureau’s approach “resulted in Ms. Fleming exposing her private parts to biological/natal male inmates,” and was unconstitutional.A federal judge disagreed. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker ruled that Fleming’s privacy was not violated and that, after analyzing the Transgender Offender Manual,“concluded that it is reasonable.”“These decisions were never made lightly,” said McLearen of the bureau’s housing assignments. “We usually required at least one year of clear conduct, program participation, hormones. No decision about housing was ever made without considering the safety of the staff and all the people in prison.” McLearen retired from the bureau last year.