15% of 'women' in federal prison are men who say they are transgender

President Donald Trump reversed previous orders that required federal prisons to put men who say they are women into women's prisons. This affects some 1,500 male prisoners in federal prisons who identify as women. In fact, 15 percent of "women" in prison are actually males who say they are transgender. 

There are about 152,000 federal prisoners in the US, and about 144,000 are male. The New York Times notes that 750 of those prisoners are women who claim to be men. However, most women who claim to be men do not opt to be housed among male inmates.

Prisoners who say they are the opposite sex are "10 times as likely to report being sexually victimized as other prisoners," The Times notes.

The guidance from the executive branch also put a stop to federal funding of sex change surgeries and drugs for those male inmates who claim to be transgender. This includes those detained illegal immigrants who had been able to get sex change drugs and surgeries on the American taxpayers' dime.

The executive order is a "major victory" for the Women's Liberation Front, which has been fighting against the inclusion of men in women's prisons. They are currently engaged in a suit in California after male inmate Tremaine Carroll was placed in a women's prison. He was removed after being accused of rape at that prison. During the trial, a Madera County judge ruled that Carroll must be referred to with "she/her" pronouns.

Those who oppose the ban on housing men with women in prison are concerned that the men will be subject to rape by men in male prisons. "There will be rapes and physical assaults because of this policy. It’s also terrible for prison officials, who right now have the authority to use discretion about what makes the most sense for the safety and security of the facility," Shannon Minter of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, a supporter of allowing men into women's prisons, said.

The reasoning for giving men sex change surgeries at taxpayer expense has been that those procedures and medications have been described as necessary medical care, which under the Constitution is required to be given to prisoners. However, severely altering a person's physical body to accomodate their mental perception of themselves will no longer be considered medically necessary.

President Barack Obama's Bureau of Prisions had made the allowance for transgender prisoners to be housed with women. In his first term, Trump reversed it. When taking office in 2021, President Joe Biden reversed it again. Now, Trump has taken back the big black Sharpie and required that biological sex be the only fact that determines if a prisoner is housed in a women's or men's prison.