
A US judge on Tuesday ruled the US Bureau of Prisons must keep providing transgender inmates gender-affirming care, despite an executive order Donald Trump signed on his first day back in office to halt funding for such care.
US district judge Royce Lamberth in Washington DC allowed a group of more than 2,000 transgender inmates in federal prisons to pursue a lawsuit challenging the order as a class action. He ordered the Bureau of Prisons to provide them with hormone therapy and accommodations such as clothing and hair-removal devices while the lawsuit plays out.
The ruling does not require the bureau to provide surgical care related to gender transitions.
Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, said the Trump administration expects to ultimately prevail in the legal dispute.