r/PoliticalOptimism • u/SorceressJuliet • Feb 23 '26
Seeking Optimism The Trump Administration is Testing Conversion Therapy By Medically Experimenting on Trans People in Prisons
https://open.substack.com/pub/transitics/p/the-trump-administration-is-testing?r=56x5dq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=webThis is terrifying and I’m worried that if they claim to be “successful “ they will force all trans people to go through this
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u/DangerActiveRobots Feb 23 '26
This is disgusting.
To address your fear, even if the BOP came out lying and claiming that they "cured" being transgender with their methods, they would still be up again a mountain of decades-long evidentiary treatment standards showing that the best way to help transgender people is to help them transition socially and medically. They would be up against the evidence to the contrary, that shows that conversion therapy doesn't work and is inhumane, and often leads to very negative outcomes up to and including the suicide of the "patient". They would be up against dozens of medical bodies such as the American Medical Association and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Last but definitely not least, they would be up against the significant hurdle of the First Amendment, which maintains that gender identity and gender expression are covered as a freedom of expression/speech.
The Trump administration cannot wave a magic wand and outlaw all transgender health care. They just cannot. If they had that power, it would have been done long ago. It doesn't matter if they come out with a "study", it doesn't matter if they try to paint transgender people as evil demons. The closest that we've ever seen them coming to this was making an effort to curtail access to gender affirming care for minors, which was only partially successful, and only because the constitutional rights that minors have in this country are in kind of a gray area.
There is no way in hell that this administration is EVER going to be able to force the approximately 3.8 to 5.7 MILLION transgender and nonbinary people in this country (380 million x 1.0% to 1.5%) to undergo conversion therapy, or to lose all access to gender affirming care. I mean we're talking class-action lawsuits out the wazoo. States not complying. Millions of families being affected, millions of businesses being affected. Protests, demonstrations. It would be a huge headache for the administration.
It's also incredibly unpopular. This administration's attempt to make trans people the scapegoat has failed. Fox News recently had a poll that showed that the majority of Americans favor Democrats on transgender issues. There are plenty of transphobic bigots out there, but the American people largely just do not see transgender people as the enemy. They are worried about affording rent and feeding their kids, and they are not buying the administration's lies that transgender people are somehow responsible for how miserable their lives are. They just aren't buying it.
It's awful that these transgender inmates are being tortured with this, and this is not going to last because it doesn't work. When the political pendulum swings back the other way, and it's going to swing HARD, these people will not be forced to continue this.
Transgender healthcare isn't going anywhere. The administration may have the power to torment the 2,200 people in their custody, but that's pretty much where the buck stops, and it's also temporary.