This week I have something very importantly gay to share that is not only hopeful but pertinent to ensuring the rights of a lot of people. On Wednesday, October 21, the U.S. Supreme Court refused the enforcement of restrictions to gender-affirming care for incarcerated people, going against President Trump's 2025 executive order aiming to ban gender-affirming care in any form except therapy. In response, three trans people in federal prisons pursued a class-action lawsuit with the help of district judge Royce Lambeth to challenge those policies.
Kingdom v. Trump has been ongoing since March 7, 2025, with the prosecution arguing that the proposed bans would be in violation of the Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment. They also cited the fact that new restrictions would be reversing a policy that has allowed hormone therapy since 1992. Out of over 2,000 transgender people incarcerated in federal prisons nationwide, only two people have ever received gender-affirming surgeries according to a sworn prison official, but as of last year, according to court documents, more than 600 federal prisoners received hormone treatments.
Lambeth managed to block any restrictions until the government appealed to the Supreme Court, and last week the ruling was made final—the Trump administration cannot prevent transgender prisoners from accessing gender-affirming care like hormone treatments! It was a 7-2 decision, and a huge step forward, but this is only a temporary measure that prevents the Federal Bureau of Prisons from putting any restrictions into effect while the lawsuit is still ongoing. Considering that in the past the high court has argued an emergency basis in order to allow the administration to implement policies lower courts had already blocked, such as the ban on trans people in the military, this was a rare but exciting win.