A federal judge in Boston temporarily blocked the transfer of an incarcerated transgender woman to a men’s prison, according to Boston.com. The transfer would have come under a recent executive order from President Trump. Lawyers from LGBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law) are representing the woman in her effort to bar the enforcement of Trump’s order.
Reports Boston.com:
Judge George O’Toole issued the temporary restraining order last week after the woman filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s Jan. 20 order, which targets so-called “gender ideology extremism.” The order directs federal officials to only recognize two unchangeable sexes; bars transgender women from women’s prisons; and stipulates no federal funds should be spent on inmates’ gender-affirming care.
Under the pseudonym “Maria Moe,” the Massachusetts inmate sued the Trump administration Jan. 26 after she was removed from the general population at the women’s prison where she is incarcerated. Moe was placed in a special housing unit and informed she would be transferred to a men’s facility in light of Trump’s order, according to the lawsuit.
O’Toole’s temporary relief ensures Moe will remain in place while the judge considers her request for a longer term injunction to bar the enforcement of Trump’s order. Moe’s lawyers with Boston-based GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, or GLAD Law, confirmed she is now back in general population and receiving her medical care.
Moe came out to her mother as transgender when she was in middle school and began hormone therapy around age 15 after being diagnosed with gender dysphoria, her lawsuit explains. Until Jan. 23, prison officials classified her as female, according to the complaint.
Moe does not have a violent disciplinary history and poses no threat to her female peers, according to the complaint. If transferred to a men’s facility, “she will be at an extremely high risk of harassment, abuse, violence, and sexual assault,” her lawyers said.
In a men’s prison, Moe may be subject to strip searches by male officers and may be forced to shower in full view of male inmates, her lawyers said, while also noting she is “at imminent risk” of losing access to medical care for her gender dysphoria.
Read the complete Boston.com story here.
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