Trump continues sending women inmates to men's prisons despite court orders
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/trump-continues-sending-women-inmates-to-men-s-prisons-despite-court-orders/ar-AA1ADlsN?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=b0e1399d5c514ff3cccd719dbde3df8e&ei=4
Story by Greg Owen (10 March 2025)
Despite multiple court rulings barring the transfer of trans female inmates in federal prisons to men's facilities, trans prisoners are still being forcibly removed and denied gender healthcare as the administration of President Donald Trump continues its crackdown on trans people.
Trump's Day One "gender ideology" executive order directed the Justice Department to purge women's prisons of trans female inmates and end their gender healthcare. The diktat was immediately challenged in three lawsuits.
Judges ruled that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) can't withhold the inmates' medical treatment and barred their transfer. Plaintiffs had "straightforwardly demonstrated that irreparable harm will follow," one judge wrote of Trump's order.
The 17 plaintiffs represented in those cases won a reprieve, but the rest of the federal trans inmate population continues to suffer under the Trump administration's denial of transgender reality.
"I'm just continuing to be punished for existing," said Whitney, a 31-year-old trans woman who was transferred from a women's facility to a men's prison this week. In messages before her transfer, she told the Guardian she felt like a "pawn in others' political games."
The BOP changed her records from "female" to "male", records show.
Kara Janssen, one of the attorneys representing trans women in litigation, said she's learned of at least two other trans women recently transferred to men's facilities and reclassified as men.
"This is incredibly unnecessary and cruel," she said. "Our clients are desperate and scared."