Trump wants gender-affirming care for trans inmates stopped over ‘security’ fear
Trump wants to end gender-affirming care for trans inmates (Getty Images)
The Trump administration has filed a Supreme Court emergency application asking the justices to let the Federal Bureau of Prisons enforce new restrictions that would stop hormone therapy, surgeries and certain social accommodations for transgender inmates while a legal challenge continues.
The emergency request, filed on 28 September, asks the court to freeze a federal district court order that has blocked the policy from taking effect.
Last month, a district court order continued to stop the Bureau of Prisons enforcing new rules against any inmates who are or will be diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
US District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered the government to carry on providing medical care to some transgender inmates. The administration appealed, and earlier this month the DC Circuit did not restore the policy with proceedings moving forward.
Under the policy described in court filings, the Bureau of Prisons would keep providing mental health care for inmates who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. However, they would not provide surgeries, hormone therapy or social accommodations such as chest binders, wigs or breast padding to address gender dysphoria.
The Bureau of Prisons said last year that more than 600 inmates were being provided with hormone therapy care.
Solicitor General D John Sauer said the policy was “necessary to maintain institutional security,” and warned the district court’s decision “nullifies” that judgement, in the administration’s emergency request, as per CBS News.
How the case reached the justices
A group of inmates who had been officially diagnosed with gender dysphoria filed a lawsuit in 2025, after Trump issued an executive order at the opening of his second term stopping federal funds being used for medical procedures or treatments for transgender inmates in the federal prison system.
In June, a judge also blocked the Trump administration from transferring 14 transgender women in federal custody to men’s prisons under part of the 2025 executive order requiring housing according to sex assigned at birth.
ACLU warns of harm
ACLU attorneys for the inmates said the policy is “a direct threat to the well-being of transgender people in federal custody and an open violation of their fundamental rights,” and argued that withholding necessary gender-affirming healthcare amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, in a statement opposing the restrictions, via The Washington Blade.
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