BREAKING NEWS:”Judge blocks Donald Trump’s order to move trans women to men’s prisons”….see more…

group of trans women inmates have won another victory against Donald Trump’s order to move them to men’s prisons and stop providing them with gender-affirming care.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth issued a preliminary injunction against transferring the women, ruling that under the Eighth Amendment (which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment), they would likely win their suit.

The order was a result of Trump’s executive order targeting what he called “gender ideology extremism.”

The executive order, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” and signed on Trump’s first day in office, directs the federal government to recognize only two, biologically distinct sexes, male and female.

Trump followed the announcement with a directive to the federal Bureau of Prisons to move all transgender women prisoners to men’s facilities and cease gender-related healthcare for transgender inmates housed in the federal prison system. The order described such healthcare as “conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”

Earlier this month, Lamberth – a Ronald Reagan appointee – issued a temporary restraining order against Trump’s order after hearing a lawsuit brought by three trans female inmates who were told that they’d be transferred to a male detainment facility as a result of Trump’s order.
The women argued they were “likely to suffer irreparable harm” under Trump’s order, pointing to various government reports and regulations showing that trans inmates experience significantly elevated risks of physical and sexual violence compared to other inmates when housed with people of the opposite gender.

The inmates also argued that placement in a male penitentiary would exacerbate their gender dysphoria because they would be subject to searches by male correctional officers, made to shower with men, referred to as men, and forced to dress as men.

Lamberth noted in his recent ruling that Trump’s attorney general and the Bureau of Prisons didn’t disagree with any of the harms that the trans women said they’d face under Trump’s order.
“Importantly, the defendants did not substantially dispute those facts,” he said. “Instead, the defendants pointed out speculative action that the Bureau of Prisons might take to mitigate those harms and thus assuage the Court’s Eighth Amendment concerns. Those hypothetical measures were insufficient to defeat the plaintiffs’ largely uncontroverted evidence of harm.”

In his initial ruling issuing the temporary restraining order, Lamberth also wrote of numerous “government reports and regulations recognizing that transgender persons are at a significantly elevated risk of physical and sexual violence relative to other inmates when housed in a facility corresponding to their biological sex.”

He added that, beyond the risks of violence, being housed in men’s prisons would undoubtedly worsen their gender dysphoria since “the mere homogeneous presence of men will cause uncomfortable dissonance.”