Transgender Prisoners Seek Court Order to Keep Identities Hidden Amid Sex Offender Housing Dispute

Transgender inmates slated for relocation to an all-male housing unit have petitioned the court to preserve a protective order that conceals identifying details such as names, prison assignments and criminal records. The request comes after four female prisoners in the Texas case Fleming v. Warden T. Rule identified some of the biologically male inmates at Federal Medical Center-Carswell as convicted sex offenders and sought to join the broader Jane Doe v. Blanche litigation.

While the court had earlier sealed the transgender plaintiffs’ records, the women now ask to lift redactions on their own witness statements, arguing for public access. The transgender plaintiffs, represented by the National Center for LGBTQ Rights and LGBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, contend that the women’s unredacted exhibits could be cross-referenced with sealed documents, exposing their identities. Judge Royce Lamberth, appointed by Ronald Reagan, has so far upheld the sealing order, and the women’s intervenors have filed a procedural challenge. The case highlights a clash between privacy protections for transgender inmates and transparency demands regarding alleged sexual misconduct in federal women’s prisons.