Some of our members who have reached out to us about the issues below have elected to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.
Among the many executive orders that President Donald Trump has pushed forward since the inauguration of his second term, one specifically targets transgender individuals in federal prisons.
On January 20th, 2025, the executive order “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” barred the use of federal funds for gender-affirming care and required the Federal Bureau of Prisons to house individuals based on their sex assigned at birth. This directive deliberately endangers transgender individuals in federal facilities. To put the disproportionality of this harsh executive order into perspective, it should be noted that about 1% of the federal prison and jail population is composed of transgender individuals, and of those 1%, 99% of them are not in prisons that correspond with their gender identity. Moreover, only approximately 0.01% of the BOP’s overall health care budget is spent on gender-affirming hormone therapy. The unnecessary extent to which transgender individuals are being targeted by the new administration shows that, contrary to their words, these executive orders are intended to discriminate against transgender individuals rather than to defend women’s rights.
Over the past three months, the Remedy Project has received 10 different pleas from members facing heightened danger due to the license to discriminate that the executive order has granted the BOP. Unfortunately, sexual assault and abuse of transgender individuals in federal facilities is not new. Transgender women in particular have been subject to rape, assault, and harassment due to placement in male facilities for decades. One of The Remedy Project’s members, Michelle Smith, permitted us to share her story. She is currently incarcerated at USP Coleman II and has endured aggressive assault, harassment, and rape due to her placement in multiple all-male facilities. While discussing with a volunteer at the Remedy Project, she mentioned that being housed in a male facility puts her at extreme risk. She stated that every day she is in danger of sexual harassment and assault, which has already and will undoubtedly continue to take a serious toll on her mental and physical well-being. Any hope that she could one day be housed with other women was dashed by this executive order.
Following the executive order’s guidance on not allowing federal funding to go towards “medical procedure, treatment, or drugs for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex”, one member told us she was afraid of the health consequences given that she has been taking hormones for over a decade. Her hormone treatment has allowed her to be liberated from being perceived as a man, a perception which has caused her years of trauma, emotional distress, and physical suffering, all for it to be taken away by the transphobic federal administration.
Other trans members who have reached out to us have also written about abuses, beatings, rapes, and harassment from prisoners and guards. If this is not bad enough, we have received reports that this discrimination has increased since President Trump came into office. The BOP has taken the federal administration’s attack on transgender individuals, through this executive order and the administration's general rhetoric, as a green light to discriminate beyond the scope of the executive order. In the last few months, one member detailed the humiliation that she felt when guards rounded up the transgender women and stripped them of their clothes. Another transgender individual has reported having her hair removal products removed from her cell. Another member has described having her female-pat search card discarded which goes against the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). These search cards specify that only female guards can give a pat search to individuals who carry them, and they are a crucial safeguard to protecting transgender individuals from molestation and abuse in Federal Prisons. Nowhere in the executive order does it say that any of these things should happen. These measures are not only humiliating but also incredibly harmful.
It is against BOP policy to knowingly and willfully put incarcerated individuals in danger of harm. Each prison's engagement and complacency in the targeted harm of transgender individuals in federal prisons is a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment as well as a violation of equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment and PREA. The staff at these prisons are treating the already vulnerable lives of transgender individuals as insignificant, deciding to put them into high-risk situations to cowardly follow, and in some cases, go beyond, orders from the president.
The Remedy Project has submitted administrative remedies for most of the members in this case. Despite multiple court rulings blocking the transfers of transgender women into men’s facilities, they have persisted. Federal judges declared that the BOP could not withhold medical treatment from transgender individuals in federal facilities. But still, these atrocities remain in practice across the country for women not directly involved in the lawsuit. Putting a target on the backs of transgender people in prison only increases their assault risk.
Using the administrative remedy process and our collective voices to disrupt and expose these injustices may be one of the few tools we have left to defend transgender people in prison. Join us in demanding justice for all the members who have reached out for the Remedy Project's assistance on this same issue. They deserve to have their lives and their rights protected. As Grace Pinson, a trangender woman incarcerated in FCI El Reno, writes, “I am not rich enough to have a dream team of lawyers like Donald Trump has to bend the system to my will and allow me to be treated with the dignity and decency I deserve but never got from the criminal legal system. Yet, through it all, I fought for myself and all those who were similarly situated as me.” Advocating for these members is advocating for all those across the entire United States who are having their rights violated by the American criminal justice system. We are requesting your support so that we can ensure all our members are properly cared for and that staff at these prisons involved in their supervision will be sufficiently held accountable for their failures.
Some of our members who have reached out to us about the issues below have elected to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.
Among the many executive orders that President Donald Trump has pushed forward since the inauguration of his second term, one specifically targets transgender individuals in federal prisons.
On January 20th, 2025, the executive order “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” barred the use of federal funds for gender-affirming care and required the Federal Bureau of Prisons to house individuals based on their sex assigned at birth. This directive deliberately endangers transgender individuals in federal facilities. To put the disproportionality of this harsh executive order into perspective, it should be noted that about 1% of the federal prison and jail population is composed of transgender individuals, and of those 1%, 99% of them are not in prisons that correspond with their gender identity. Moreover, only approximately 0.01% of the BOP’s overall health care budget is spent on gender-affirming hormone therapy. The unnecessary extent to which transgender individuals are being targeted by the new administration shows that, contrary to their words, these executive orders are intended to discriminate against transgender individuals rather than to defend women’s rights.
Over the past three months, the Remedy Project has received 10 different pleas from members facing heightened danger due to the license to discriminate that the executive order has granted the BOP. Unfortunately, sexual assault and abuse of transgender individuals in federal facilities is not new. Transgender women in particular have been subject to rape, assault, and harassment due to placement in male facilities for decades. One of The Remedy Project’s members, Michelle Smith, permitted us to share her story. She is currently incarcerated at USP Coleman II and has endured aggressive assault, harassment, and rape due to her placement in multiple all-male facilities. While discussing with a volunteer at the Remedy Project, she mentioned that being housed in a male facility puts her at extreme risk. She stated that every day she is in danger of sexual harassment and assault, which has already and will undoubtedly continue to take a serious toll on her mental and physical well-being. Any hope that she could one day be housed with other women was dashed by this executive order.
Following the executive order’s guidance on not allowing federal funding to go towards “medical procedure, treatment, or drugs for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex”, one member told us she was afraid of the health consequences given that she has been taking hormones for over a decade. Her hormone treatment has allowed her to be liberated from being perceived as a man, a perception which has caused her years of trauma, emotional distress, and physical suffering, all for it to be taken away by the transphobic federal administration.
Other trans members who have reached out to us have also written about abuses, beatings, rapes, and harassment from prisoners and guards. If this is not bad enough, we have received reports that this discrimination has increased since President Trump came into office. The BOP has taken the federal administration’s attack on transgender individuals, through this executive order and the administration's general rhetoric, as a green light to discriminate beyond the scope of the executive order. In the last few months, one member detailed the humiliation that she felt when guards rounded up the transgender women and stripped them of their clothes. Another transgender individual has reported having her hair removal products removed from her cell. Another member has described having her female-pat search card discarded which goes against the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). These search cards specify that only female guards can give a pat search to individuals who carry them, and they are a crucial safeguard to protecting transgender individuals from molestation and abuse in Federal Prisons. Nowhere in the executive order does it say that any of these things should happen. These measures are not only humiliating but also incredibly harmful.
It is against BOP policy to knowingly and willfully put incarcerated individuals in danger of harm. Each prison's engagement and complacency in the targeted harm of transgender individuals in federal prisons is a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment as well as a violation of equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment and PREA. The staff at these prisons are treating the already vulnerable lives of transgender individuals as insignificant, deciding to put them into high-risk situations to cowardly follow, and in some cases, go beyond, orders from the president.
The Remedy Project has submitted administrative remedies for most of the members in this case. Despite multiple court rulings blocking the transfers of transgender women into men’s facilities, they have persisted. Federal judges declared that the BOP could not withhold medical treatment from transgender individuals in federal facilities. But still, these atrocities remain in practice across the country for women not directly involved in the lawsuit. Putting a target on the backs of transgender people in prison only increases their assault risk.
Using the administrative remedy process and our collective voices to disrupt and expose these injustices may be one of the few tools we have left to defend transgender people in prison. Join us in demanding justice for all the members who have reached out for the Remedy Project's assistance on this same issue. They deserve to have their lives and their rights protected. As Grace Pinson, a trangender woman incarcerated in FCI El Reno, writes, “I am not rich enough to have a dream team of lawyers like Donald Trump has to bend the system to my will and allow me to be treated with the dignity and decency I deserve but never got from the criminal legal system. Yet, through it all, I fought for myself and all those who were similarly situated as me.” Advocating for these members is advocating for all those across the entire United States who are having their rights violated by the American criminal justice system. We are requesting your support so that we can ensure all our members are properly cared for and that staff at these prisons involved in their supervision will be sufficiently held accountable for their failures.
