Trump administration rolls back rules protecting transgender inmates in federal prisons

President Trump’s Justice Department moved Friday to roll back a series of Obama-era rules applying to transgender inmates in federal prisons.

The Bureau of Prisons released a policy change to its manual, which now says that the department will use “biological sex” as the basis for assigning facilities and bathrooms.

The order strikes a provision in the manual that said officials would “recommend housing by gender identity when appropriate,” and now says that designating inmates to facilities based on their identified gender “would be appropriate only in rare cases.”

{mosads}The manual also now includes language stating that when considering recommendations to transfer transgender inmates to facilities in line with their identified gender, officials will consider whether such placement would “threaten the management and security of the institution and/or pose a risk to other inmates.”

The changes, which were first reported by BuzzFeed News, also include the addition of the word “necessary” to guidelines about when institutions will facilitate medical treatment.

The move comes after four women in a Texas prison challenged the transgender protection regulations put in place in 2012, arguing that being housed with transgender women ”creates a situation that incessantly violates the privacy of female inmates; endangers the physical and mental health of the female Plaintiffs and others, including prison staff; [and] increases the potential for rape.”