Federal Judge Deals Massive Blow to Transgender Policy, Finally Rules Against Men in Women’s Prisons
A recent federal court ruling by U.S.District Judge Sidney Fitzwater prohibits a Texas female-only prison, Federal medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, from housing male inmates who identify as transgender alongside female inmates. The temporary restraining order mandates that such male inmates cannot be placed in the same housing units, showers, restrooms, changing areas, or dormitories as female inmates. Male inmates must be reassigned to secure, segregated areas away from female inmates’ living and privacy spaces.
This decision followed a lawsuit filed by female inmates Rhonda Fleming and miriam Crystal Herrera, who argued that their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the U.S. Constitution were violated by being forced to share facilities with transgender men. They claim that individuals cannot change their gender and maintain that shared housing violates modesty norms and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and a breach of bodily privacy.
The lawsuit cited concerns over several transgender male inmates at the facility, including sex offenders who allegedly engage in sexual activity with female inmates. One of the transgender inmates is noted as having undergone genital surgery and frequently wears makeup and dresses. The ruling aims to protect the privacy and safety of female inmates by preventing cohabitation or shared use of private spaces with male inmates who identify as women.
A new federal ruling said that a Texas prison is not permitted to house male inmates who claim transgender identity with females.
United States District Judge Sidney Fitzwater of the Northern District of Texas sided against Federal Medical Center Carswell, a female-only prison in Fort Worth, in his issuance of a temporary restraining order.
The facility is not allowed to keep self-proclaimed transgender inmates alongside females in housing units.
The male inmates are also not permitted in showers, restrooms, changing areas, and dormitories used by females, according to a report from The Christian Post.
“Defendants are temporarily restrained from housing any male inmate within the general female population in any housing unit where either plaintiff is currently or will be housed,” Fitzwater wrote.
The male inmates must be reassigned “away from plaintiffs’ housing and privacy areas.”
They could also be housed in “a secure, segregated area.”
Fitzwater issued the decision after a lawsuit from inmates Rhonda Fleming and Miriam Crystal Herrera.
The complaint said that the two inmates had their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the United States Constitution disregarded by having self-proclaimed transgender inmates housed with them.
Fleming and Herrera both believe that “individuals cannot choose their gender; that men cannot become women; and men and women practice modesty norms that prohibit men and women exposing or viewing one another’s nudity outside of marriage.”
They argued that forcing them to stay with males represented cruel and unusual punishment, as well as a “violation of bodily privacy.”
The complaint recounted how females are forced to “encounter these men daily in communal settings” without any privacy.
There have been several male inmates placed in the facility with the females.
Zack Lawrence, one of the self-proclaimed transgender inmates, is a sex offender who “routinely uses the women’s showers and has been observed frequently engaging in sexual activity with female inmates in the showers,” according to the complaint.
Another inmate, Gary Dean Boone, meanwhile allegedly “has ongoing sexual relationships with female inmates and has been observed sharing a cell naked and having sex with a woman who reportedly suffers from mental illness.”
A third inmate, Peter Langan, is believed to be the only male inmate at Federal Medical Center Carswell who is known to have actually underwent genital surgery.
He is also “the only male inmate who regularly wears makeup and a dress.”
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