DOJ Halts LGBTQ Prisoner Safety Rules

By: Paul Goldberg, Senior Editor | JRL CHARTS — LGBT Politics

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (December 4, 2025) — In a stunning reversal of long-standing federal protections, the U.S. Department of Justice has ordered PREA-certified prison auditors to stop evaluating whether jails and prisons protect LGBTQ and intersex people from sexual abuse — despite decades of data proving these populations are at extreme risk.

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The directive — confirmed in a leaked internal memo — immediately removes all LGBTQ-specific safety checks from ongoing Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) audits while the agency rewrites national detention standards to comply with President Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order declaring the government recognizes only “male and female.”¹

Advocates warn the abrupt shift is not a bureaucratic tweak — it is a life-threatening rollback.

Advocates: “This Will Immediately Put People in Danger”

“It’s going to make people less safe,” said Linda McFarlane, head of Just Detention International — a leading organization that helped shape PREA’s implementation. “When facilities are less safe for the most marginalized, they are less safe for everybody.”

Under previous standards, PREA auditors were required to:

Assess housing for trans inmates based on gender identity
Examine sexual assault cases tied to anti-LGBTQ bias
Review staff training on gender-inclusive safety policies

The DOJ memo instructs auditors to ignore all of it moving forward.

LGBTQ People in Prison Face Sky-High Assault Rates

Research shows the dangers are not hypothetical:

LGBTQ prisoners are 6x more likely to be sexually assaulted behind bars²

And legal experts stress the true number is much higher, given reporting barriers, retaliation, and chronic undercounting by correctional systems.

Trump Administration Continues Anti-Trans Policy Wave

This move follows a string of targeted reversals:

Ending placement of trans women in women’s facilities
Banning transgender military service
Restricting gender-affirming healthcare for youth

Many of those orders remain locked in ongoing court battles.

Federal Oversight Already Weakened

In April, the DOJ slashed funding to violence-prevention and victim-support programs — including the National PREA Resource Center, which trains the very auditors now being told to stand down. After outrage, some grants were restored — but not all.³

The department defended reallocations as necessary to combat “toxic DEI policies.”

Years of Bipartisan Progress Dismantled

PREA took nearly a decade to enact. It passed with strong bipartisan support after Human Rights Watch revealed pervasive rape, harassment, and retaliation in detention nationwide.⁴

Now, LGBTQ protections created by that work are being erased with a single memo — and the people PREA was built to protect are again left vulnerable.

JRL CHARTS Condemns This Dangerous Rollback

Federal government decisions must not ignore life-and-death realities — and no incarcerated person should face increased risk of rape simply because of their gender identity.

Activists vow to fight the changes! Lives depend on it.

Citations / Source Notes

DOJ internal memo obtained by NPR
“Coming Out of Concrete Closets” — Black & Pink Survey (2015), 1,110 respondents
DOJ grant cuts reported nationwide April 2025
Human Rights Watch: “No Escape: Sexual Abuse Behind Bars in the United States”

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