Trans Prisoners Sue to Block Trump Order Banning Gender-Affirming Care
At least one trans woman in federal prison says Trump’s executive order has already prevented her from receiving hormone therapy, leading to “thoughts of suicide and self-harm.”
On Friday, three transgender federal prisoners filed a class-action lawsuit against President Donald Trump, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, and other federal prison officials for denying them access to life-saving medical care.
On Jan. 20, Trump issued a sweeping executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which bans transgender people incarcerated in federal prisons and immigration detention centers from receiving gender-affirming healthcare. The order also says the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) must house transgender women in men’s facilities.
According to the complaint, the BOP issued two memoranda laying out how the agency will implement Trump’s executive order. Per the lawsuit, the BOP says it will prohibit transgender people from purchasing or wearing gender-affirming clothing, prevent staff from using a transgender person’s preferred pronouns, and ban trans people from receiving essential healthcare, such as hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgery.
BOP medical staff diagnosed the three named plaintiffs—a transgender woman and two transgender men— with gender dysphoria. The suit says that as a result of Trump’s executive order and the BOP’s Implementing Memoranda, the plaintiffs “have already had their hormone therapy and/or access to accommodations discontinued, causing anxiety, thoughts of suicide and self-harm, sleeplessness, lethargy, and mood swings.”
The suit says BOP has removed its “Transgender Offender Manual” from the agency’s website, which now instead says, “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 lawsuit, which was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of DC, and the Transgender Law Center, asks the court to prohibit the executive order’s implementation. The DOJ and BOP did not immediately respond to The Appeal’s requests for comment.
Multiple groups have sued to block Trump’s executive order. In some cases, courts have ruled against the president, but those rulings have only applied to individual plaintiffs.
The ACLU and Transgender Law Center’s lawsuit may impact more people. The plaintiffs say they represent a class of approximately 2,000 transgender federal prisoners. If the court agrees, its rulings will apply to all federal prisoners diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a medical condition whereby a person’s assigned sex at birth does not match their gender identity, causing emotional distress.
In January, BOP stopped providing hormone therapy to plaintiff Alishea Sophia Kingdom, a 34-year-old trans woman locked up in New Jersey. Staff allegedly told her that they would also no longer provide her with a bra and panties. For close to ten years, BOP staff gave Kingdom hormone therapy and access to commissary items and clothing aligned with her gender identity.
“Hormone therapy and access to feminine-typical clothing and commissary items reduced her symptoms of gender dysphoria and greatly improved her health and well-being,” the complaint says. “While receiving this treatment, Ms. Kingdom stopped experiencing panic attacks, her anxiety was controlled, and she was able to get a full night’s sleep.”
The suit says that the BOP had been evaluating Kingdom for gender-affirming surgery. Now that she can no longer have the procedure, she says she frequently considers self-castration.
The complaint says that Kingdom “is experiencing anxiety and panic attacks, insomnia, mood swings, and thoughts of self-harm and suicide as her body reacts to the change in hormone levels and her gender dysphoria worsens.”
Prison staff told another plaintiff, a transgender man, that once his prescription for testosterone runs out, he will no longer receive hormone therapy. He is also no longer allowed to receive a chest binder or buy boxers at the commissary.
“He finds this prospect devastating—he is finally in a place where he feels emotionally stable thanks to receiving appropriate care,” the complaint says. “He can feel his depression and anxiety increasing and is worried about the feelings of hopelessness that he used to have before his gender-affirming care started.”