DOJ Memo Suspends Protections for Transgender Inmates (1)

President Donald Trump’s campaign against expanded rights for transgender people has taken a new turn as the US Justice Department rewrites policies intended to protect vulnerable prison inmates from sexual assault and harassment.

The department is revising federal standards for evaluating prisons and jails under a 2003 law designed to eliminate sexual assault of detainees, because some of the language conflicts with a Trump order to only “recognize two sexes, male and female,” according to an internal memo viewed by Bloomberg. It directed auditors to pause portions of their facility reviews that pertain to treatment and conditions for “transgender, ...