Trans Women Notified Of Removal From Women’s Prisons Days After Trump’s ‘Two Sexes’ Executive Order

One of the women sued the Trump administration, alleging the order violates her constitutional rights and puts her “at an extremely high risk of harassment, abuse, violence, and sexual assault.”

Several trans women incarcerated in federal women’s facilities have been moved into isolation and notified they will be transferred to men’s facilities, advocates told HuffPost. The women were moved in the days following President Donald Trump’s signing of a sweeping executive order that redefines sex and excludes transgender people from sex discrimination protections.

The order, signed during Trump’s first few hours in office, declared there are only “two sexes, male and female” and called on government officials to ensure that no transgender women are in women’s detention centers and that no federal funds are used to provide gender-affirming care to incarcerated people.

Openly trans people account for less than 1% of people in federal prisons, according to the Bureau of Prisons, which did not respond to a list of questions from HuffPost. The bureau does not disclose how many trans people are currently incarcerated in prisons that match their gender.

A.D. Lewis, an attorney at the Prison Law Office, a nonprofit law firm that focuses on constitutional protections for trans people, estimates there are fewer than 10 trans women in federal women’s facilities. Lewis and other advocates have been notified that several of them have been placed in segregation and notified they will be transferred to men’s facilities. Some of the women have not been reachable, potentially because they are in solitary confinement without access to communication devices. Trans people in BOP custody have also reported issues accessing hormones, Lewis said.

One of the transgender women who was placed in solitary and notified of transfer to a men’s prison sued the Trump administration on Sunday night— the first known legal challenge to the executive order — alleging that the order put her safety at risk.