transgender inmates

Kim Wirtz was placed among male inmates in a Baltimore jail. Then, on February 25, guards found her unconscious in her cell. What happened remains a mystery.

Despite years of education, the judges apparently couldn’t figure out how to write an opinion without using he/him pronouns.

The incarcerated trans woman had medical documents asking that she not be housed with cisgender inmates, similar to the prison policy already in place. She was placed with not one, but two convicted rapists.

“She has waited long enough,” the federal judge wrote.

The bills address housing and health care needs for trans people, insurance discrimination based on HIV status, and the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on LGBTQ people.

A psychiatrist said that it was risky to put 27-year-old trans inmate Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco into a cell on her own. Guards did it anyway.

“It was horrifying for the family to see this footage,” said David Shanies, the lawyer representing the inmate’s family. “They were completely unprepared for what they saw. They all broke into hysterical crying.”

The ruling is a rare victory for LGBTQ rights at the Supreme Court.

Because trans rights are currently being debated in the courts, he writes, it’d be legally biased for a court to use a trans person’s personal pronouns.

Often transgender women are placed in solitary confinement “for their own protection,” something which is tantamount to psychological torture.