Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday banning transgender women from women’s prisons, dismantling protections for trans inmates under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), according to converging reports.
The order directs federal agencies to amend guidelines ensuring male inmates are not housed in women’s prisons, overturning PREA provisions established to address the safety of transgender and intersex inmates.
Passed in 2003 with bipartisan support, PREA was intended to combat sexual violence in US prisons, with 2012 guidelines requiring case-by-case assessments of transgender inmates’ placements based on safety concerns.
The new rules specifically target trans women. Trans men, however, remain eligible for placement in men’s facilities.
Advocacy groups have condemned the order. Julie Abbate, national advocacy director at Just Detention International, labeled the policy “life-threatening.” She warned of “devastating” consequences for trans inmates, who already face disproportionate rates of sexual victimization in prisons.
“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.”
This executive order follows Trump’s broader rollback of LGBTQ+ protections.