Among the most horrific executive orders signed by Donald Trump on Jan. 20, were those withdrawing protection for transgender women incarcerated in federal prisons and terminating all their necessary gender-affirming medical care. The orders, which explicitly prohibit women’s prisons and detention centers from housing transgender female inmates, placed 22 trans women in imminent risk of transfer to a men’s facility where they would be subjected to strip searches and showering in front of men, violating the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA).

In one order claiming that the “U.S. government no longer recognizes transgender people,” Trump is attempting to strip them of established legal protections. He signed several anti-trans orders on this basis.

In the first of several challenges to these orders, on Jan. 26, U.S. District Judge George O’Toole in Massachusetts temporarily blocked federal prisons officials from sending a transgender woman, using the pseudonym Maria Moe in the lawsuit, to a men’s prison. Moe, who began taking hormones as a teenager, had never been housed in a male facility, and until Trump’s order, her sex was listed as “female” on Bureau of Prisons (BOP) records. (workers.org/2025/02/83642/)

Her case was quickly followed by others.

Three trans women filed an emergency legal request not to be transferred to men’s prisons Jan. 30 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Their complaint charges that the new executive order violates PREA and is unconstitutional, because it discriminates based on a person’s transgender status, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause and the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

The plaintiffs, known as Jane, Mary and Sara Doe, currently in women’s prisons at BOP locations, said that if transferred to male prisons across the U.S., they will face harm, humiliation and possible sexual assault. Plaintiff Mary Doe, who was previously held at a men’s prison, in her lawsuit said when there, she was “raped multiple times.”

That suit also alleged that putting the women at risk of losing gender-affirming medical care will “put them at high risk of serious harm,” in violation of the Fifth and Eighth Amendments to the Constitution.

The struggle continues. On Feb. 20, counsel for Jane, Mary and Sara Doe received notice that the BOP planned to proceed with transferring all 22 transgender women currently in female prisons to male prisons. They appealed and won, at least temporarily, a new injunction against the executive order.

As of Feb. 25, under multiple legal challenges, lawyers fighting Trump’s directive say the court rulings prevented the transfers of 17 women in federal prisons who joined the litigations. They are now protected against transfer and will continue to receive care. But the others not included in the cases are now facing placements in men’s facilities.

Due to the prolonged process of getting an approval for housing trans women in women’s facilities, the majority of the 1,500 trans women in federal prisons are housed in men’s facilities. While lawsuits may result in temporary victories, the movements fighting Trump’s attacks on many fronts must take up the struggle of these trans women.

And while Trump’s orders were restricted to federal prisons, there is an ever-present danger that individual states with repressive legislatures could move to establish similar policies. Currently several states have no protection for trans women under PREA.

Trans rights are human rights!