(Photo
by
Win
McNamee/Getty
Images)
One
of
the
planks
of
President
Trump’s
campaign
was
bashing
trans
people.
And
he
wasted
no
time
delivering
on
his
vow
to
inflict
maximum
harm
on
minorities.
Promises
(to
be
cruel)
made,
promises
(to
be
cruel)
kept!
Within
hours
of
taking
the
oath
of
office,
he
issued
an
executive
order
“Defending
Women
from
Gender
Ideology
Extremism
and
Restoring
Biological
Truth
to
the
Federal
Government.”
The
order
has
been
widely
mocked
for
being
biologically
illiterate.
It
defines
“male”
as
“a
person
belonging,
at
conception,
to
the
sex
that
produces
the
small
reproductive
cell,”
despite
the
fact
that
sexual
differentiation
of
zygotes
does
take
place
until
several
weeks
post-conception.
But
it
will
still
cause
major
destruction,
particularly
to
trans
and
non-binary
prisoners.
Specifically,
Trump
instructed
the
Attorney
General
and
Secretary
of
Homeland
Security
to
“ensure
that
males
are
not
detained
in
women’s
prisons
or
housed
in
women’s
detention
centers,
including
through
amendment,
as
necessary,
of
Part
115.41
of
title
28,
Code
of
Federal
Regulations
and
interpretation
guidance
regarding
the
Americans
with
Disabilities
Act.”
Title
28
CFR
115
lays
out
implementation
standards
for
for
the
Prison
Rape
Elimination
Act
of
2003
(PREA).
Section
115.41
provides
that
every
inmate
shall
be
assessed
on
intake
for
“their
risk
of
being
sexually
abused
by
other
inmates
or
sexually
abusive
toward
other
inmates”
including,
among
several
other
criteria
“Whether
the
inmate
is
or
is
perceived
to
be
gay,
lesbian,
bisexual,
transgender,
intersex,
or
gender
nonconforming.”
But
Trump’s
new
order
insists
that
there
is
no
such
thing
as
transgender,
intersex,
or
gender
nonconforming
—
they’ve
been
defined
out
of
existence
by
executive
fiat.
And
to
make
darn
sure,
he’s
instructed
prisons
to
deny
non-existent
trans
people
medical
care,
forcibly
detransitioning
them
and
ordering
trans
women
to
be
transferred
to
men’s
prisons.
It
should
be
noted
that,
while
America’s
carceral
system
is
plagued
with
sexual
assault
and
abuse,
gender
non-conforming
inmates
are
particularly
likely
to
be
victimized.
And
so,
under
the
guise
of
“defending
women,”
Trump
will
now
send
trans
women
into
settings
where
they
are
in
grave
danger
of
being
sexually
assaulted,
in
direct
defiance
of
the
mandates
of
the
PREA.
As
reporter
Adam
Rhodes
notes
at
The
Appeal,
while
the
PREA
standards
are
only
binding
on
federal
facilities,
they
provide
a
financial
cudgel
to
force
states
to
implement
their
guidelines:
PREA
standards
are
binding
for
federal
agencies
but
not
for
state
facilities.
However,
in
order
to
receive
federal
grants,
state
carceral
institutions
must
prove
they
comply
with
PREA.
For
those
that
do
not,
the
federal
government
reduces
their
grants
by
5
percent. For
the
2024
fiscal
year, all
but
six U.S.
states
and
territories
met
PREA
guidelines.
Rhodes
also
notes
that
the
new
guidelines
will
run
into
multiple
existing
court
orders
and
consent
decrees,
which
oblige
state
and
federal
facilities
to
provide
medical
care
consistent
with
a
prisoner’s
gender
identity.
But
considering
how
successfully
Trump
was
able
to
demonize
Harris
by
accusing
her
of
supporting
gender
reassignment
surgery
for
prisoners,
it’s
likely
the
new
president
would
relish
such
a
fight.
And
meanwhile,
rates
of
prison
rape
are
almost
certain
to
go
up.
But,
as
ever,
the
cruelty
is
the
point.
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.