Amid Trump’s Torture of Trans Prisoners, Vermont Just Passed a Landmark Bill Protecting Their Rights

Vermont’s sweeping, first-of-its-kind trans prisoner rights bill stands in stark contrast to the Trump administration’s abuse of trans people in federal prisons.

The Vermont State Capitol in Montpelier | Image: Wikimedia Commons

Since the start of Trump’s second term, his administration has moved to significantly restrict the rights of trans people in prisons. On day one, he signed an executive order that stripped their access to gender-affirming care and required that trans women be housed in men’s prisons. These mandates, which apply to the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), have been the subject of numerous lawsuits and are currently blocked.

Then, in December, the DOJ released a memo announcing that the Prison Rape Elimination Act’s (PREA) protections of transgender prisoners—which date back to 2012—would be removed. As per Transitics’ research, these protections form the basis for 31 states’ transgender inmate housing policies and have been responsible for many advances in trans prisoners’ rights over the last decade. A similar change was made to protections for trans people in ICE detention centers in January.

As part of the case against the BOP’s ban on gender-affirming care, the Bureau released a policy that will forcibly impose conversion therapy—which is recognized as torture—onto the ~2,200 trans people in its custody with no exceptions. And after being ordered to explain the medical basis for its policy, the BOP revealed that it relied on standards for unrelated conditions and that it expects that it will need to collect more data relating to transgender suicides.

Amid this unprecedented assault, Vermont is moving in the opposite direction. Today, its state legislature passed H.550, which is simply titled “an act relating to gender equity within Vermont’s correctional facilities.” The bill opens with a section on legislative intent, where it declares that “gender transition is a deeply personal experience that may involve some combination of social transition, legal transition, medical transition, or none of these.”

The bill then shifts towards prisons and acknowledges that “due to safety concerns, inconsistent medical and mental health care, and insufficient education and resources, among other factors, incarceration often serves as a barrier to gender transition or recognition.” Concluding the section, it states that “gender diverse, intersex, and transgender incarcerated individuals are at a higher risk for abuse, harassment, and sexual violence.”

Already, H.550 is doing what no bill has done before: explicitly acknowledging the unique barriers that trans people face in prisons. And it’s aiming to do something about it. Under its provisions, the Department of Corrections (DOC) will have to ensure “that all individuals are addressed in a manner consistent with their gender identity” and that “staff and contractors receive gender-responsive training.”

Aside from that, it will allow trans people in DOC custody to request to be moved to a facility that aligns with their gender identity. Like the handful of other states with similar policies, these requests will require a “review by the Department’s multidisciplinary review panels” which will “consult with medical personnel, mental health professionals with experience in gender dysphoria or gender-affirming care, and personnel who have received training aligned with nationally recognized standards for gender-affirming care.” However, these requests may be denied “if the Department finds that accommodating the inmate’s request would pose an unreasonable risk to institutional safety or security, the inmate’s health or safety, or the safety or security of other inmates or staff.”

But unlike the 9 states with similar policies, it provides an alternative by allowing the DOC to move trans prisoners to another state’s facility. This opens the door for them to be housed in Colorado, which recently created two units entirely for trans women. It also explicitly instructs the DOC to separately codify and comply with the pre-Trump PREA standards.

Finally, it commissions a report on “current practices related to gender-affirming care in correctional settings” that “shall include recommended statutory language”—signaling that the state will move to codify access to gender-affirming care for trans prisoners in the near future. Once it does, Vermont will become the first state to legally protect gender-affirming care in prisons. That said, this won’t come with any substantial policy changes, as Vermont is already one of the 24 states that provide surgeries and hormone therapy to trans prisoners. Here’s a map of those policies:

Simply put, H.550 is wholly antithetical to everything the Trump administration’s anti-trans prison policies stand for. Because of that fact, Vermont will likely find itself in the crosshairs of the Trump administration, which has launched investigations into California, Maine, and Washington over their pro-trans prison policies. However, as of now, nothing has come of those investigations, and all three states are yet to give in to Trump’s demands.

And even despite that threat, H.550 was far from controversial. It passed the House by a voice vote before heading to the Senate, where 11 of the chamber’s 13 Republicans voted for its passage. Furthermore, at least 6 of those Republicans voted to suspend the rules—which requires a 3/4th majority—and expedite its passage, meaning the bill now heads to Governor Phil Scott’s desk for his signature. Scott, a socially liberal Republican with a stronger record on trans rights than California Governor Gavin Newsom, is expected to sign it into law.