Federal Court Halts Transgender Inmate Transfers to Male Prisons

A group of 14 transgender women succeeded in convincing a federal district court to grant a preliminary injunction preventing them from being transferred to male prison facilities under a Trump administration executive order.

A preliminary injunction is appropriate because the government’s “mitigable” concerns about housing transgender women alongside cisgender women were outweighed by the far greater risks the plaintiffs would face in male prisons—which include sexual violence, self-harm, and suicide, the US District Court for the District of Columbia said Sunday.

The plaintiffs’ risks take precedence because many had lived in women’s facilities for ...