Trump’s new gender rules gut a key part of the Prison Rape Elimination Act
Trump’s new gender rules gut a key part of the Prison Rape Elimination Act
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Transgender people face the highest levels of sexual violence of any group in prison, but Trump executive order rolls back protections for their safety, Josh Marcus reports. The legislation, passed under the Bush administration to combat the rampant sexual abuse in U.S. prisons, was later applied by the Obama and Biden administrations to protect transgender people. Trans people are one of the groups most at risk for becoming targets of sexual and physical violence.
![[Over time, federal prisons have developed housing and healthcare standards to protect transgender people in accordance with the Constitution’s guarantees against cruel and unusual punishment and the Prison Rape Elimination Act]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/07/15/GettyImages-1164225901.jpg)
PREA instituted new changes like preventing unnecessary, invasive searches of inmates’ genitals to determine gender; considering whether housing assignments would pose safety threats based on gender identity; and letting trans people use facilities, including bathrooms and housing, that matched their self-identified gender.
![[Ashley Diamond successfully challenged Georgia’s policy of limiting hormone access to trans people in prison]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/06/30/22/newFile.jpg)
Moreover, the executive order’s ban on using federal funds for gender-affirming care will further isolate trans inmates. Those who were receiving such care on the outside will be cut off from their regular medical regime, potentially exposing them to painful physical or emotional changes. Those who seek such care on the inside, meanwhile, will be denied, potentially leaving them to struggle with gender dysphoria, the psychic difficulty of which sometimes pushes inmates to perform unsafe self-guided medical intervention attempts rather than wait for officials to approve real treatment.
![[Trump nominees like potential attorney general Pam Bondi defended Florida’s same-sex marriage ban]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/15/22/SEI236066798.jpg)
