1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

The Trump administration's Bureau of Prisons policy forcing approximately 2,200 transgender people in federal custody to medically detransition must be stopped. This is forced conversion therapy on a captive population, and it violates basic human rights to bodily autonomy. Even people in prison retain the right to make their own medical decisions. The administrative record released on March 12th proves the BOP knowingly ignored medical consensus. They reviewed the DSM-5, WPATH Standards of Care, and guidelines from the American Psychological Association and Endocrine Society, then deliberately rejected them. They relied instead on the Cass Review and sources about transgender minors, neither of which apply to adults in federal prisons. They copied Florida's policy word-for-word, despite Florida admitting it was created due to political pressure, not medical evidence. Worse, the BOP reviewed ten studies on suicide risk among transgender people, most showing positive effects of transition, then implemented a policy guaranteed to increase those risks. They included two sources on data collection methods for tracking suicide and self-harm. They know this policy will cause deaths and they plan to document the results. That is medical experimentation on human beings. Judge Royce Lamberth has temporarily blocked enforcement for 800 people diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Defend that injunction and oppose this policy entirely. Bodily autonomy is a human right that does not end at the prison gate.