Updated February 07, 2025 at 17:02 PM ET
A Bureau of Prisons policy that, earlier this week, called on transgender women in federal prisons to hand over any female-identifying clothing and other commissary items, like women's razors and hair care, is on hold at at least one federal prison in Texas, according to sources who spoke to NPR on the condition of anonymity.
Earlier this week, NPR obtained a copy of the new clothing policy, dated Feb. 3, that was shared with inmates at FCI Seagoville, a low-security men's institution in a Dallas suburb.
"In here, we do not exist anymore," said one trans inmate at Seagoville prison after learning of the earlier planned policy changes. "We are dodos." She spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity because she feared for her safety.
She said tearfully that as of Tuesday morning, trans women were instructed to hand over their female undergarments and other items of clothing.
Providing gender-affirming clothing for individuals suffering from gender dysphoria (the deep discomfort caused by a mismatch between a person's assigned sex at birth and their gender identity) is considered a critical component to treating the condition.
The rules posed a significant change for the incarcerated trans community. The policy resulted from an executive order from President Trump, which called on the bureau to move trans women out of women's federal prisons and end gender affirming care. That order is facing at least two challenges in federal court. Late Tuesday, a judge in Washington temporarily blocked the transfer of three transgender women from a women's prison into a men's facility.
And at the prison in Texas, transgender women whose clothes were taken away later learned the items would be returned.
Most had their things again as of Friday, according to the inmate who spoke to NPR.
An employee at Seagoville confirmed to NPR the clothing policy change had been transmitted to all federal prisons with trans inmates.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media and feared retaliation.
Now, prison officials are being told that clear directives on policy changes involving trans inmates will come directly from the Justice Department, the employee said. For now, any future plans are on hold.
"We just don't know where this is going yet," they said.
Along with the order to hand over women's clothing, the Bureau of Prisons policy also resulted in the cancellation of trainings that promote gender ideology or have done so in the past, and disbanded any group programs that promote "gender ideology," including group therapy sessions.
It also got rid of an exception that allowed transgender prisoners to request a guard who aligned with their gender identity for pat-downs and searches.
It's unclear where these policy changes stand now.
The Bureau of Prisons and the Justice Department didn't respond to NPR's request for comment.
The Trump administration continues to show "gender ideology" and trans issues will remain at the forefront of its domestic policy agenda. Just this week, Trump signed an executive order aiming to ban transgender athletes from participating in women's sports.
The White House has defended its directive as an effort to protect women and to "safeguard women's spaces from biological men."
Some cisgender female prisoners have opposed allowing trans women into female prisons, saying they worried about their safety, and they have challenged the policy in federal court.
But lawyer Kara Janssen, whose law firm represented the three transgender women challenging the executive order, says this effort has only sowed chaos and fear.
NPR shared with Janssen the latest rule changes. She called it, not only a violation of various federal statues including the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), but "mean and spiteful."
Tuesday's order included criticism from the judge, who said it was hard to conceive of how it served the public interest.
Janssen applauded the judge's order, saying "Trump's Executive Order is motivated by hate and fear, not by logic or actual need, and we are thrilled the Court saw it for what it is."
BOP causing fear and chaos, inmates' lawyer says
Janssen says she and her legal team have been trying to get answers on new guidance and policies being introduced at BOP as their legal cases proceed. The latest confusion on the clothing policy just emphasizes the disarray at the agency, she said.
"The information that we've been getting [from BOP] is that no guidance is issued when obviously guidance is being issued. And the impact on our clients and on all transgender individuals in BOP is really horrific," she said. "People that we've spoken to who are transgender and who are in custody are terrified. They're terrified that they're going to lose things that they had to fight years for."
"Everything is changing every minute, and it is causing increased anxiety," Janssen said.
Other lawyers representing incarcerated trans people say they have heard from their clients that people have been moved to isolated housing units in some facilities as they await removal to a facility that aligns with their sex at birth.
The Guardian also reported that trans women in Carswell, a women's federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, were recently roughly removed from their cells and placed in isolation. The report also said that they have been warned their gender affirming care, like hormone treatments, will end all as part of Trump's executive order.
The Seagoville employee said their prison has yet to receive any guidance from BOP on bigger plans to stop gender affirming medical treatment or to prepare to move any prisoner to isolation or elsewhere.
The employee said officials at Seagoville have tried to be compassionate and communicate with the prison's 60 or so trans inmates as much as possible about more proposed changes.
"There's definitely understanding of the impact, psychologically, on these offenders and there's utmost care to try to make it as smooth of a transition as can be," the employee said.
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