Hundreds of transgender federal prisoners are living in fear after a 'roundup' that will send them packing to men's lockups following a day-one executive order from President Donald Trump.
Now lawyers are desperately trying to find a way to fight the order, saying the prisoners will have 'a target on their backs' as they move in with hardened male inmates.
'It's going to be incredibly dangerous,' attorney Moira Meltzer-Cohen told DailyMail.com.
Meltzer-Cohen represents Donna Langan, a transgender woman who underwent a sex change in federal prison. She is serving a life sentence for bank robbery as a member of the neo-Nazi Aryan Republican Army.
Meltzer-Cohen said she fears there would be a 'bloodbath' if her client and other trans inmates are forced into male prisons.
The order declared that the government will only recognize two sexes – male and female. This means all 'intimate spaces designated for women, girls, or females' will be determined by sex rather than gender identity.
DailyMail.com viewed an email from a federal public defender in Massachusetts that was sent to colleagues nationally.
It stated that one of her clients imprisoned in Minnesota, a transgender woman, was among those rounded up and is 'terrified' of what will happen when they're sent to male prisons
Public defender Sandra Gant said her office was notified of the change in policy by the federal Bureau of Prisons Tuesday morning by the trans inmate's family and asked other public defenders to share information for a legal fight.
'Our office represents a trans client who, for the entirety of her pretrial detention & BOP custody, has been in a women's facility,' Gant wrote in the alert sent Tuesday afternoon.
'Her family reached out in a panic – as of this morning, she, along with others at FCI Waseca, have been segregated and told that they are being processed out to a transfer center and then to a men's prison.
'She is terrified,' Gant explained.
'Has anyone prepared to litigate this, or have any insights/advice on challenging this? Or any contacts with ACLU, etc., who might be litigating this?' Gant asked.
Trump signed orders Monday rolling back protections for transgender people, ruling that the two 'immutable sexes' are 'not changeable' and that federal prisons along with shelters for migrants and rape victims are to be segregated by sex.
Federal money will also no longer be used to fund 'transition services'.
The president also demanded officials use the term 'sex' rather than 'gender.' Federal agencies were urged to end funding to promote 'gender ideology' and protect against 'gender extremism' – representing major policy shifts from the Biden and Obama administrations.
The changes, cheered by conservative groups, have been met with fear and anger by the transgender community.
The Bureau of Prisons estimates there are about 1,500 trans female inmates and 750 trans males in the federal prison system.
Rhonda Fleming, 58, a female inmate who sued to get trans women out of her prison, welcomed the development after losing her case in court last week in Tallahassee, Florida.
She argued that she and other biological women live in constant fear of attack and stress over having to interact with and UnCloth in front of inmates with male Instruments.
Her civil suit stated women shouldn't be forced to share intimate spaces such as bathrooms, showers and dorms with trans women.
But the judge on the case disagreed, ruling against her complaint on January 15.
Fleming was outraged when she spoke to DailyMail.com about the ruling and said: 'What the judge did Wednesday was a farce, it was a mockery of justice. He never intended for us to have a fair trial.
'It's like he's attacking the victim, telling the victim you're in the wrong, not the victimizer.'
She also claimed several 'heterosexual men' in her current prison, Carswell Federal Medical Center in Texas, fake their gender so they could serve out their terms with women.
Now, her wish for Trump to reverse these policies has come true with the January 20 executive order.
Langan – who was convicted under her birth name of Peter Kevin Langan – is also currently in Carswell.
A lawyer for Tomas Ziupsnys, a 42-year-old serving five years at Carswell for fraud, said trans inmates will 'have targets no their backs,' if moved.
Trey Flynn said Ziupsnys, who has surgically created female Instruments and has fought for follow-up surgery to maintain her gender identity, is terrified of returning to a male facility.
'They're going to be the target of bullying, sexual violence, all sorts of mischievous sorts of actions by other inmates,' added Flynn.
But another lawyer clarified that while the BOP is rounding up trans inmates, officials have yet to decide where to place inmates who have already undergone sex changes.
'The BOP is planning to move transgender females into men's prisons, but there could be separate arrangement for those who are post-surgical,' the lawyer said.
'They've separated those individuals as well, but there is no movement for them yet. The BOP is trying to figure out exactly what to do with those who are post-surgical because these inmates could face additional security concerns in a men's facility.'
The executive order was one of 26 Trump issued within hours of his inauguration. He also rescinded 78 of former President Joe Biden's executive actions such as fighting climate change, gender discrimination and promoting racial equality.
But this doesn't mean the order is guaranteed to stay in place, Trump will most likely have to fight a litany of legal battles with foes such as the ACLU who vowed to take his administration to court to defend LGBTQ rights.
Congress could also slow down Trump policies by using backdoor methods such as blocking the his laws from passing or cutting money from his programs – although that is unlikely due to Republicans having control of both the enate and the House.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14314325/transgender-inmates-panic-donald-trump-executive-order-mens-prison.html
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