Sunday, February 02, 2025

Three Transgender Women Sue Trump Administration Over ‘Life Or Death’ Prison Transfer Plan



Jessica Schulberg
Fri, January 31, 2025

Three incarcerated transgender women sued the Trump administration on Thursday, alleging that the president’s executive order directing government officials to move them to men’s prisons and cut off their access to health care violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law.

The women, identified as Jane Doe, Mary Doe and Sara Doe, will face a high risk of harassment, abuse, violence and sexual assault if moved to men’s facilities, they wrote in their complaint. When Mary was previously incarcerated in men’s BOP facilities, she was raped multiple times, according to the complaint.

If the plaintiffs lose access to their hormone therapy and other care, they are likely to experience worsening gender dysphoria — which increases the risk of suicidality and depression — as well as other adverse health outcomes, the complaint alleged.

Openly transgender people account for less than 1% of people in federal prisons, according to Bureau of Prisons data accessed on Jan. 27. (BOP no longer publishes the number of trans people behind bars; the agency’s stats online now refer only to “inmate sex.”)

In the days following Trump’s executive order, lawyers and advocates told HuffPost that trans women in BOP facilities throughout the country were being placed in solitary confinement and notified that they would soon be transferred to men’s facilities. The United Nations recognizes prolonged solitary confinement as a form of torture.

On Jan. 24, Jane and Mary were removed from the general population and placed in segregation with other transgender women, according to the complaint. BOP officials told them their transfer paperwork had already been processed and that they would be moved no later than Jan. 30.

Sara was placed in solitary on Jan. 25 and was told that her cell was being cleaned out, in anticipation of her transfer. Her mother and sister emailed prison officials, pleading for them to reconsider.

“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,” they wrote. “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.”

In response, BOP officials said they could not house Sara at a women’s facility because of the executive order.

On Jan. 26, a transgender woman incarcerated in Massachusetts filed the first known legal challenge to Trump’s executive order. Shortly after, the plaintiff, identified as Maria Moe, as well as Jane, Mary and Sara, were returned to general population housing. The day the Massachusetts lawsuit was filed, the federal judge overseeing the case temporarily blocked Moe from being transferred to a men’s facility.

Similarly to the first suit, this case alleges that the executive order violates constitutional protections granted by the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause and the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. It also argues that Trump’s order failed to comply with federal laws governing changes to rulemaking within the Bureau of Prisons.

The Prison Rape Elimination Act, a law enacted in 2003 and implemented in 2012, requires prison officials to conduct housing reviews for incarcerated trans people at least twice a year to determine, on a case-by-case basis, where they should be imprisoned. The law states that the individual’s views on their own safety should “be given serious consideration,” but it does not provide meaningful guidance on how housing decisions should be made.

Transferring transgender individuals without conducting an individualized assessment violates federal law, the women’s suit alleges.

As of earlier this week, the BOP website included the 2022 Transgender Offender Manual, which echoed the PREA language. By Friday, the BOP had taken its policies and forms offline. “This content is temporarily unavailable as we implement the Executive Order on ’Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” the website read.

3 trans women file emergency request not to be transferred to male prisons

Lisa Fernandez
Fri, January 31, 2025 

3 trans women file emergency request not to be transferred to male prisons


WASHINGTON, D.C. - Three transgender women are asking for "emergency relief" to not be transferred to male prisons across the country, saying they will face harm, humiliation and possible sexual assault, which they have suffered in the past.

What we know

The request was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, on behalf of Jane, Mary and Sara Doe, who are currently in women's prisons at Bureau of Prisons locations that were redacted in the court filing.

They are being represented by two San Francisco law firms, as well as attorneys in Boston and Baltimore. The suit was filed against Acting Attorney General James R. McHenry III and Acting BOP Director William Lothrop.

The BOP did not immediately comment on the suit.

What we don't know

As of Friday, a judge had not been assigned to the case, so it's unclear how the request will play out.

What they're saying

The transgender women have been incarcerated in women's prisons and their lawyers say if they are transferred to a men's prison they will not be safe. They say that the women will be subjected to strip searches and showering in front of men.

For example, Mary Doe had previously been held at a men's facility where she had been "raped multiple times," the court filing states.

The women are also at risk of losing to medical care they need to treat their gender dysphoria, which will "put them at high risk of serious harm" and which is a violation of the 5th and 8th amendments in the Constitution, the suit alleges.
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Before President Donald Trump took office, the BOP took an individualized process to determine appropriate housing for transgender women, consistent with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, known as PREA.

The other side

But on Jan. 20, Trump issued an executive order on "gender ideology," where they will lose gender-affirming medical treatments and the U.S. government no longer recognizes transgender people. The directive told 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 money will go to medical care like replacement hormones.

Trump issued several other executive orders against the transgender community as well, including cutting federal support for gender transitions for people younger than 19, ordering federally run insurance programs like Medicare to exclude gender-affirming care, which occurs in some states. Separately, Trump also directed the Pentago to conduct a review that could bar transgender people from military service.

Four days later, the three transgender plaintiffs were placed in separate housing with other transgender women. They were also told that because of Trump's executive order they will be "imminently transferred to men's facilities," the court filing states.
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On Jan. 28, Jane and Mary Doe were returned to the general population after the BOP staff learned they contacted lawyers, including the Rosen, Bien, Galvan & Grunfeld and National Center for Lesbian Rights, both in San Francisco. But correctional officers continue to tell the women they will soon be moved to men's prisons.

Sarah Doe's family emailed officials begging for their sympathy.

"She will get sexually assaulted and even possibly killed for being who she is," the family wrote. "She is a citizen designated as a female and deserves protection like any other human."

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Judge blocks transfer of transgender woman to men’s facility

Brooke Migdon
Fri, January 31, 2025 


Judge blocks transfer of transgender woman to men’s facility

A Massachusetts judge has temporarily blocked federal prison officials from transferring an incarcerated transgender woman to a men’s facility and denying her access to gender-affirming care, as an executive order issued by President Trump had instructed them.

U.S. District Judge George O’Toole issued the temporary restraining order Sunday while the case was sealed. At a hearing in Boston on Thursday, O’Toole confirmed from the bench that the inmate, identified in court filings by the pseudonym Maria Moe, is back in general population after prison officials moved her to a “special housing unit” and receiving her hormone therapy, her lawyers said.

O’Toole, an appointee of former President Clinton, ordered the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) not to change from that position until he decides whether to issue a longer injunction.

Moe sued the Trump administration Sunday over an executive order declaring the government recognizes only two sexes, male and female, and broadly preventing federal dollars from being spent on what Trump and his administration call “gender ideology.”

The order, which Trump signed on his first day back in office, explicitly prohibits women’s prisons and detention centers from housing transgender female inmates. It directs the incoming attorney general to ensure BOP complies with the order, including its prohibition on using federal funds to cover inmates’ gender-affirming care.

Moe’s attorneys had argued that transferring Moe, who began taking hormones as a teenager and has no violent disciplinary history, to a men’s facility would put her at “an extremely high risk of harassment, abuse, violence, and sexual assault.”

She has never been housed in a men’s facility, and until this month, her sex was listed as “female” on BOP records. Prison staff moved Moe to a “special housing unit” on Jan. 25 as they prepared to transfer her in compliance with Trump’s executive order, where she had no contact with others for at least four days, her lawyers said.

“The outcome of yesterday’s hearing was a huge relief to Maria Moe. She is back in general population and receiving necessary medical care,” said Jennifer Levi, an attorney with GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, representing Moe with the National Center for Lesbian Rights and a private law firm, Lowenstein Sandler LLP. “Trump’s Gender Ideology Executive Order is contrary to the health and safety of incarcerated people, undermines prison security for all, and protects no one. It’s part of a seemingly sustained attack on transgender people’s inclusion in civic life.”

“The Courts remain an important backstop,” Levi said Friday in an emailed statement. “This is a great first step in the case.”

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 

McBride: Trump administration using transgender people ‘as a pawn’

Brooke Migdon
Fri, January 31, 2025 


Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, on Friday condemned recent executive orders issued by President Trump that target transgender rights and accused the administration of using transgender Americans to further a political agenda.

Trump, since he first took office on Jan. 20, has signed a bevy of executive orders to roll back transgender rights and certain federal nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people. An order issued during his first hours in office declared the government recognizes only two sexes, male and female, and broadly prevents federal dollars from being spent on what Trump and his administration call “gender ideology.”

Federal prison officials, in compliance with the order, had attempted to move an incarcerated transgender woman to a men’s facility and deny her access to gender-affirming care before a Massachusetts judge stepped in to block them.

The Office of Personnel Management instructed federal agency heads this week to bar trans employees from using restrooms that match their gender identity and place workers whose job descriptions involve “promoting gender ideology” on administrative leave because of the order.

Three more executive orders signed this week target schools that teach “radical gender ideology,” transgender people serving openly in the military, and access to gender-affirming care for minors. Hospital systems in states across the country said they are pausing treatment for trans youth over fear the Trump administration could take away their funding.

“Since January 20th, I’ve heard from transgender constituents and their families who are living in fear of the Trump Administration’s relentless attacks on them,” McBride said Friday in a lengthy statement on the social platform X.

“Many Americans have good faith questions about topics regarding trans people, but this administration’s sweeping and malicious policies exploit those questions for political purposes,” McBride said. “I will not let my trans constituents — or any Delawarean — be used as a pawn in the Trump Administration’s efforts to purge patriots from federal service and gut lifesaving programs all in pursuit of lining the pockets of the uber wealthy. And I will continue to pull back the curtain on this administration’s blatant effort to divide this nation at the expense of working people.”

“Each time the Trump administration attacks a small vulnerable community, the ripple effects of hate echo across our society,” she added. “In Delaware, we have the capacity to be the antidote to this hate — where we see one another as neighbors and treat one another with respect.”

McBride’s comments mark a shift in tone for the first-term lawmaker, who has tended to stay above the fray, characterizing attacks on transgender rights — and her, personally — as “an effort to distract” from issues such as lowering costs of health care and groceries.

In November, after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) implemented a new policy barring transgender people from facilities that best align with their gender identity at the Capitol, McBride said she would comply. “I’m not here to fight about bathrooms,” she said.

In a recent interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, McBride said the Trump administration’s targeting of transgender people is part of “a strategy of misdirection.”

“This is a strategy as old as time,” she said. “Right-wing leaders will often target vulnerable and misunderstood communities in order to distract from what they’re doing that is deeply unpopular with the American people.”

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 



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