The Trump Administration Just Stripped Sexual Violence Protections For Trans Prisoners. It’s The Most Egregious Anti-Trans Attack Yet.

‘Transphobic’ describes Trump’s passport and military bans. But this? It’s just plain evil.

President Trump signed a large amount of executive orders during his first days in office, including EO 14168, which has sparked waves of anti-trans attacks | Image: The White House

Yesterday, it was reported that, according to an internal memo obtained by independent newsroom Prism, Trump’s Department of Justice is in the process of removing the protections that have been afforded to trans and intersex prisoners under Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) standards for the past 13 years. The memo, authored by the principal deputy director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Tammie M. Gregg, asserts that these changes are being made in order to align the agency with Executive Order 14168, which states that all branches of the federal government must “recognize two sexes, male and female,” as “immutable biological classifications.”

Although these changes are not yet final, all PREA auditors have been instructed to ignore the existing policies on transgender and intersex inmates—governing things like searching procedures, inmate housing/placement, and risk assessment—until the standards are formally updated. And despite all the ways the Trump administration has targeted trans people this year, restricting passports, bathroom access, gender-affirming care for minors, insurance coverage for trans federal workers, and much more, this somehow manages to be infinitely more despicable.

First, a bit of context. The Prison Rape Elimination Act is a law that was passed by Congress in 2003, which, as the name implies, aims to reduce sexual violence in American correctional facilities. Before its passage, there existed no way to enforce nationwide standards because of the fact that individual states each have complete control over their own prison systems, and thus, in order to get around this, Congress had to get creative.

The law instructs the Justice Department to set concrete standards and perform yearly audits in every state in order to ensure compliance with the PREA. And if a state is found to be in violation of it, their correctional system’s federal funding will be reduced by 5%. Although it took around a decade, most states eventually aligned themselves with PREA standards. In 2012, the Obama administration expanded these protections to address issues faced by LGBTQ+ inmates, and this policy remained in place under the first Trump administration.

When it comes to trans prisoners, the soon-to-be repealed standards mandate their placement in either male or female facilities be determined case-by-case, taking into account medical transition (if any), risk of facing violence from fellow inmates, and other factors. Prison officials must also consider the inmate’s gender identity when searching or communicating with them and are instructed to assess “whether a sexual abuse incident was motivated by an inmate’s gender identity or transgender or intersex identification or status.”

Currently, all but 2 states—Alaska and Texas—follow the PREA standards when it comes to trans inmates, at least on paper. That said, many of the states that do comply with the PREA have been restricting transgender inmates in other ways. 6 states—Arkansas, Florida, Georgia (blocked), Idaho (blocked), Kentucky, and North Carolina—have passed laws completely banning gender-affirming care for inmates; South Carolina and Utah will only provide it if the treatment began prior to incarceration, and Tennessee will only provide it if the treatment began before April 29th, 2024. Here’s a map of current prison care policies:

For sources, tables, and maps for other issues, head to Transitics’ CATPALM page.

Because an inmate’s medical transition is often a crucial factor in determining the gender of the facility they will be placed in, these laws all but ensure transgender inmates in these states will never be housed according to their gender identity. Even some Democratic-controlled states have been resistant to the idea, and in a few cases, it took years of litigation before the prison system began providing gender-affirming care to those that needed it.

And yet, despite the glaring issues, the PREA standards have impacted policies in many other states. Because of the PREA, the number of Republican-controlled states that restrict transgender inmates falls far behind the number that restrict gender-affirming care for minors and bathrooms. But thanks to the Trump administration’s actions, that will soon change. Now that auditors have been instructed to turn a blind eye towards the way prisons treat transgender and intersex individuals, it’s pretty much open season for anyone—be it politicians, prison guards, or other inmates—who wants to hurt them.

Unfortunately, the issue of transgender inmates is always difficult to discuss, even among those generally supportive of trans rights. Not even Kentucky’s Democratic Governor Andy Beshear, who has publicly opposed Republican attacks against trans people in his state, could bring himself to symbolically veto the bill banning gender-affirming care for inmates when it reached his desk. The issue was also used as an attack against Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.

Similar to restrictions on Medicaid coverage of gender-affirming care, these laws are justified on the basis of not ‘wasting taxpayer dollars.’ Quite frankly, they’re being sincere when they say that. At the end of the day, they don’t believe that transgender healthcare is the medical necessity the medical community knows it to be. That logic extends to inmate housing as well: to the Trump administration, transgender inmates don’t need protections because they’re choosing to be that way.

But this issue shouldn’t be about politics—because it’s not. In discussions about trans inmates, there’s only one thing at stake: how many rights can the government legally take away? Because if the government is allowed to define a certain subset of actions that warrant the total removal of human rights, it will be able to expand that definition whenever it pleases.

Currently, 19 states have laws restricting transgender bathroom access, and of those laws, 3 subject violators to criminal penalties. In Florida, HB 1521 makes it a criminal trespass offense for a trans person to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity in a non-federal government building. If there was another person in the bathroom when the violation took place, it’s classified as a first-degree misdemeanor, which carries a jail sentence of up to one year. If the bathroom was empty, the violation is a second-degree misdemeanor (for which the punishment is up to 60 days in jail).

Mississippi’s law SB 2753 is similar, except the maximum sentence is a fine of $500 or less and/or a jail sentence of 6 months or less. And in Utah, HB 257 only applies criminal penalties to changing rooms, which are defined in the law to include “a restroom when a changing room contains or is attached to the restroom.” Violating it is a class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to 1 year in jail and/or a $2,500 fine.

Additionally, Florida is also one of the states that subjects trans inmates to the psychological torture of being forcibly detransitioned. Now that the PREA’s protections are no longer in place, trans inmates in the state will both be tortured psychologically and physically abused by inmates and guards alike for the duration of their sentence. And this can all be over using the bathroom.

With Republican attacks against trans people getting worse every year, it’s possible that, pretty soon, it won’t just be Florida that will arrest and torture people for being trans. Because Trump didn’t just make life infinitely more difficult for trans inmates right now, he made it infinitely more difficult for any trans person arrested tomorrow and every day moving forward until the protections are restored. No matter the offense.

‘Transphobic’ describes Trump’s passport and military bans. But this? It’s just plain evil.