Three transgender people who were imprisoned in federal custody sued the Trump administration and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) on Friday.
Complaintfiled in US District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday, challenges one of President Trump's executive orders and a BOP directive to end treatments, including hormone therapy and surgery, for trans inmates diagnosed with gender discomfort.
Trump's January 20th order signed his first inauguration time, declaring that the government only recognizes two genders: male and female, and widely bans the use of federal dollars on what he and his administration called “gender ideology.”
The order directs Attorney General Pam Bondy and Homeland Security secretary Christa Noem to move transgender women held in women's facilities to men's prisons and to stop BOP officials from using federal funds for gender-assisted care. Three federal lawsuits seek to stop the Trump administration from moving trans women to men's facilities.
The BOP memo, published February 21, instructs staff to comply with Trump's orders by preventing trans inmates from purchasing “items that line up with transgender ideology,” as well as “all items” such as chest binders and hair removal devices, and requires prison staff to refer to trans individuals using only “biologically gender-corresponding pronouns.” The second memo issued on February 28th will BOP funds as it will be used in transition-related care.
Two trans men and one transgender woman, in their mid-30s to early 40s, are leading the challenge to Trump's order and new BOP policy. All three sentenced in prisons at facilities in New Jersey, Minnesota and Florida have been diagnosed with gender discomfort by BOP healthcare providers and are told they will either suspend hormonal treatment or will be stopped soon.
The lawsuit targeting around 2,000 transgender people who have been imprisoned in federal prisons nationwide alleges that refusing to treat their treatment would violate the 8th Amendment prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.
“By refusing to treat a plaintiff and a member of the putative class of gender discomfort, the defendant continues to cause harm to them by withholding effective treatment for objectively serious medical conditions,” states the lawsuit filed on behalf of the plaintiff by the ACLU and the Transgender Law Centre.
For nearly half a century, the Supreme Court held that denying incarcerated people medically necessary health care was a violation of their constitutional rights, and federal prisons provided gender-affirming care to trans prisoners under the first Trump administration.
“The courts keep it again and again that the constitution requires prisons to provide medical and mental health care to those who have been imprisoned,” said Corene Kendrick, Associate Director of the ACLU National Prish Project. “President Trump's executive order categorically prohibiting all gender-affirming care for transgender people in federal prisons is just as unconstitutional as it decisively prohibits diabetic patients from incarcerated cancer patients or insulin chemotherapy.”
The issue also unfolded last year's campaign trail, where Trump denounced former Vice President Harris of his past support for gender-affirming care for transgender people in prison or immigrant detention.
“Trans people are not pawns in the ideological battle. They are people who deserve access to important medical care as much as everyone else,” said Michael Perlov, senior staff lawyer at ACLU.
The White House and BOP spokesmen did not immediately return requests for comment.
