In a rare win for transgender rights advocates October 21, the Supreme Court blocked an emergency request by the Trump administration to pause a lower court’s order prohibiting the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) from enacting its revised transgender healthcare policy. The policy had been adopted by the BOP in February of this year and would prohibit transgender inmates from receiving hormone replacement therapy, gender-transition surgeries and certain “social accommodations” such as makeup, wigs and gender-related clothing. The Supreme Court’s action came without explanation, and Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas indicated they would have approved the request by the Trump administration.
In support of its own policy, the BOP provided a 43-page memorandum that claims recent policy changes were in response to what the BOP calls “the latest scientific information,” all of which asserts that “cross-sex hormones generally are not medically necessary,” “cross-sex surgeries are not medically necessary” and “social accommodations are not medically necessary.” For the 30 years prior to this policy reversal the BOP had been following recommendations by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, but now claims that “WPATH openly engages in ideologically-based political advocacy, systematically misrepresents evidence, and often bases its recommendations, no matter how impactful for the patient, on low-quality supporting evidence.”
This policy reversal was officially adopted about a year after Trump’s 2025 executive order which directed the attorney general to “ensure that no Federal funds are expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex,” despite the BOP’s claims that its policy was adopted “independently of” Trump’s executive order.
The initial block on the policy came as a result of the lawsuit, Kingdom v. Trump, brought by three transgender inmates: Alishea Sophia Kingdom, Solo Nichols and Jas Kapule. Kingdom claimed she had been denied access to her regularly scheduled hormone injection in January 2025, an entire year before the revised policy had been officially adopted. Kingdom described the experience in a statement, “The distress of losing my care has caused me to experience anxiety, panic attacks, and mood swings, and I have been unable to sleep. I frequently find myself thinking, ‘I would rather not live than be forced to live as a man.’”
Regan-appointed U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth found in this case that the BOP failed to justify its policy reasoning, citing evidence that discontinuing hormone replacement therapy could worsen gender dysphoria and lead to anxiety, depression and suicidality. Judge Lamberth ordered that the BOP “shall provide and continue providing Plaintiffs and class members with gender-affirming care in accordance with BOP policy and practice in effect immediately prior to the issuance of Executive Order 14168 on January 20, 2025.”
Litigation is still ongoing, and until a verdict is reached determining whether or not the policy is lawful, the injunction will be stayed and transgender inmates will continue to receive care in alignment with WPATH recommendations.
This story is brought to you by Rosedale Health and Wellness and Dudley’s Place.
