Judge blocks transfer of transgender woman to men's facility

A Massachusetts judge has temporarily blocked federal prison officials from transferring an incarcerated transgender woman to a men’s facility and denying her access to gender-affirming care, as an executive order issued by President Trump had instructed them.

U.S. District Judge George O’Toole issued the temporary restraining order Sunday while the case was sealed. At a hearing in Boston on Thursday, O’Toole confirmed from the bench that the inmate, identified in court filings by the pseudonym Maria Moe, is back in general population after prison officials moved her to a “special housing unit” and receiving her hormone therapy, her lawyers said.

O’Toole, an appointee of former President Clinton, ordered the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) not to change from that position until he decides whether to issue a longer injunction.

Moe sued the Trump administration Sunday over an executive order declaring the government recognizes only two sexes, male and female, and broadly preventing federal dollars from being spent on what Trump and his administration call “gender ideology.”

The order, which Trump signed on his first day back in office, explicitly prohibits women’s prisons and detention centers from housing transgender female inmates. It directs the incoming attorney general to ensure BOP complies with the order, including its prohibition on using federal funds to cover inmates’ gender-affirming care.

Moe’s attorneys had argued that transferring Moe, who began taking hormones as a teenager and has no violent disciplinary history, to a men’s facility would put her at “an extremely high risk of harassment, abuse, violence, and sexual assault.”

She has never been housed in a men’s facility, and until this month, her sex was listed as “female” on BOP records. Prison staff moved Moe to a “special housing unit” on Jan. 25 as they prepared to transfer her in compliance with Trump’s executive order, where she had no contact with others for at least four days, her lawyers said.

“The outcome of yesterday’s hearing was a huge relief to Maria Moe. She is back in general population and receiving necessary medical care,” said Jennifer Levi, an attorney with GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, representing Moe with the National Center for Lesbian Rights and a private law firm, Lowenstein Sandler LLP. “Trump’s Gender Ideology Executive Order is contrary to the health and safety of incarcerated people, undermines prison security for all, and protects no one. It’s part of a seemingly sustained attack on transgender people’s inclusion in civic life.”

“The Courts remain an important backstop,” Levi said Friday in an emailed statement. “This is a great first step in the case.”

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