Trump will ban trans women from women’s prisons by removing trans inmates from rape protections
Author: Ryan Adamczeski
Donald Trump’s executive order supposedly meant to protect women only exposes one of the most vulnerable groups to sexual assault and gender-based violence.
While there is no evidence to suggest the presence of trans women in women’s spaces endangers other women, transgender inmates are 10 times more likely to report being sexually victimized than other prisoners, federal data shows. More than half of nearly 300 surveyed incarcerated trans people reported being sexually assaulted during their current prison sentences, according to a February report, with over 31 percent saying violence from fellow prisoners is the primary reason they feel unsafe.
There are approximately 1.6 million people in the U.S. ages 13 and up who identify as transgender, according to the Williams Institute, accounting for just 0.6 percent of the overall population. There are about 5,000 incarcerated transgender people in the country, the NBC report found, accounting for just 0.4 percent of the 1,230,100 inmates recorded nationally in 2021.
In federal prisons, there are about 1,500 trans women, the Bureau of Prisons reports, accounting for 15 percent of women in federal prisons. There are about 750 trans men out of the 144,000 men in federal prisons.
Julie Abbate, national advocacy director at Just Detention International, an organization that works to end sexual abuse in prisons and jails, said in a statement that the order is “life-threatening” and will have “immediate consequences to the actual lives and physical, sexual, and social well-being of any transgender person, including those who are locked up.”
“People will die,” Abbate said. “It’s unconscionable the President of the United States has issued this order. It’s just unconscionable in its cruelty.”
Original Article on The Advocate
Author: Ryan Adamczeski