Trans inmate sues Trump over executive order forcing her into men’s prison and denying appropriate health care
Trans inmate sues Trump over executive order forcing her into men’s prison and denying appropriate health care
Share:
Incarcerated trans woman takes aim at president’s order rolling back protections for LGBT+ Americans. Trump’s order directs the federal government to recognize only two “immutable” biological sexes: male and female. All government documents must “accurately reflect the holder’s sex” as either male or female, according to the order.
The plaintiff in the new lawsuit, identified anonymously as Maria Moe, is diagnosed with gender dysphoria and began transitioning in middle school. She has been taking feminizing hormones since she was 15 years old, and “during her term of incarceration, she has always been treated as a woman by federal correctional officials and her peers,” according to the complaint.
But on January 21, she was segregated from the general population at a women’s facility, moved into a “special housing unit,” and told that she would be transferred to a men’s prison, the lawsuit states. On January 25, prison records suddenly classified her as “male,” according to the lawsuit.
She remains in the special housing unit, pending transfer. “If Maria Moe is transferred to a men’s facility, she will not be safe,” the lawsuit states. “She will be at an extremely high risk of harassment, abuse, violence, and sexual assault. She may be subject to strip searches by male correctional officers. She may be forced to shower in full view of men who are incarcerated. And she will predictably experience worsening gender dysphoria, which can lead to serious harm, including dramatically increased rates of suicidality and depression,” the suit added.
