1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to take immediate action against the Bureau of Prisons policy that forces approximately 2,200 transgender people in federal custody into conversion therapy while denying them medically necessary healthcare. This policy, released by the Trump administration, treats gender dysphoria as a mental illness requiring psychotherapy and antidepressants until the diagnosis is marked as resolved. It denies all gender-affirming healthcare, forces constant misgendering, and confiscates basic items including binders, bras, and makeup. Major medical associations reject conversion therapy, and the United Nations recognizes it as torture. Research demonstrates it increases risks of suicidal ideation, depression, and PTSD. The policy contains no exceptions. Every transgender person in BOP custody will be forced off gender-affirming care regardless of how long they have been on hormones or whether they have had surgery, even those who no longer produce sex hormones naturally. Unlike Florida's September 2024 policy that this was copied from, the federal version removed the one-year exception clause entirely. This creates a closed system of human experimentation on a captive population. The policy forces discredited treatment on people who cannot refuse, assigns a measurable outcome, electronically records results, and provides no alternative except submission or suffering. This violates multiple provisions of the Nuremberg Code regarding ethical human experimentation, including voluntary consent, avoidance of unnecessary suffering, and freedom to withdraw. While lawsuits have blocked enforcement for approximately 800 people, over 1,400 transgender prisoners remain unprotected. These are human beings in federal custody who deserve constitutionally mandated medical care, not subjects for politically motivated experimentation with discredited practices. I urge you to publicly oppose this policy, support legislation to prohibit conversion therapy in federal facilities, and demand the BOP immediately restore access to medically necessary gender-affirming healthcare for all people in federal custody.