The Federal Bureau of Prisons laid out strict new guidelines for the treatment of transgender inmates to comply with President Trump’s executive order on gender recognition, including ending special procedures for pat-down searches and barring prisoners from purchasing underwear of their choice. The guidelines show the extraordinary steps that the federal government will have to take to comply with the president’s edict that there are only two sexes, established at conception, and that men who “self-identify as women” pose a threat to the safety of women, reports the New York Times. The prison memo was issued the same day that a new group of transgender women asked a court to stop their transfer from all-female prisons to all-male facilities, saying that the move would place them at an elevated risk of physical and sexual violence. A preliminary injunction Feb. 18 had blocked the transfer of three transgender women to male prisons. The new lawsuit said the bureau informed the trans women not participating in earlier suits that they were to be transferred to male prisons “imminently.”
The two-page memo details the treatment expected of transgender inmates. The guidelines require prison staff to refer to inmates by “their legal name or pronouns corresponding to their biological sex.” It said that transgender women would no longer be shielded from pat-down searches by male guards and that they would no longer be permitted to buy bras and other women’s clothing at the commissary. Public funds would no longer be used to purchase items that bind breasts, remove hair or allow trans men to use urinals.
“Individuals will not be referred for gender affirming surgeries,” the memo said. Prisoners who were receiving hormones and other gender-related medical and mental health care before Trump’s order would continue to receive it because of a court order. “The safety and mental health of those affected remains a top priority, and it is critical that these changes are carried out with the utmost care and sensitivity,” the memo said. Of 150,000 federal prisoners, fewer than 1,600 are trans women. About two dozen are housed in women’s facilities. The rest are in men’s facilities, but may have been receiving accommodations such as being searched only by female guards or being allowed to purchase smocks and women’s undergarments. About 700 prisoners are trans men.
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