By Xandan Gulley
This article was originally published by Truthout
I am being locked up 23 hours a day with no human interaction. I believe I am being punished for being transgender.
Ever since Donald Trump returned to office, the LGBTQIA community’s human rights have been disregarded and we’ve had little protection against incursions from the government. As Trump incessantly tests the boundaries of power, the few rights trans people once had while incarcerated are now obsolete.
Deep-red Texas, meanwhile, has dehumanized incarcerated trans people by depriving us of both liberty and gender expression. Being incarcerated in Texas puts targets on the backs of trans people and a bullseye on our heads.
For starters, violations of any kind against incarcerated trans people are generally ignored, uninvestigated, and treated as insignificant. Freedom of speech, expression, and religion is nonexistent. Solidarity and protection for trans people has become extinct behind bars. Not only do prison staff not protect trans people, but prison culture actually promotes violence against trans people. Within the Texas prison system, trans people have to fend for themselves in an unprotected and unsafe environment. I know from experience.
As a F2M transgender person (trans man) diagnosed with gender dysphoria in a Texas women’s prison in 2017 by University of Texas Medical Branch, I’ve been subjected to forced isolation and marginalization. Policies and practices are implemented with hostility toward trans people. For instance, I was a victim of prolonged solitary confinement from 2012 to 2021. I fought for my release from solitary confinement for years only to be placed in “restrictive housing” once Trump’s administration took over in 2025. Restrictive housing is the same as solitary confinement: I am locked up 23 hours a day with no human interaction. Prison administrators say they placed me here for my own safety. But I believe I am being punished for being transgender.
The hatred of, fear of, or discrimination against trans people based on their gender identity or expression has taken a turn for the worse in Texas prisons. Discrimination, harassment, and violence against trans people in Texas prisons has heightened since the Trump administration has been in power. I suffer disproportionate harm, from the risk of retaliatory assaults to predatorial sexual violence, poor health care, and inadequate mental health attention. Since complaints to the prison ombudsman are downplayed and grievances are uninvestigated, trans people’s welfare and safety is a daily gamble. I have filed ombudsman complaints with no response, and I have a pending civil case in the Southern District of Texas.
Although I am one of the rare fortunate few trans people who has access to gender-affirming care, attaining my access is a weekly struggle. I have hormonal therapy from the University of Texas Medical Branch, and I’m prescribed weekly doses of testosterone injections. Since I’m in restrictive housing, I have to be escorted everywhere in handcuffs by an officer. But the prisons are understaffed, so officers are often unavailable. This leaves me on numerous occasions without an escort, so I’m unable to obtain my medical treatment. Many times, I go weeks without my injections. There have been times when officers are available but they refuse to escort me.
And then, unfortunately, there have been multiple times officers escort me to medical only to then viciously assault me as I’m being led back to my cell. I’m punched, kicked, and spit on while invectives and transphobic slurs are yelled at me. The oppression that consists of not only verbal abuse but also of mental injury, emotional turmoil, and physical assault is the norm for trans people in restrictive housing.
Harmful is its own right, restrictive housing allows officers and staff to get away unscathed with their abusive actions toward trans people. Prison staff engage in retaliatory and discriminatory behavior, initiate violence, make threats, and indulge in other misconduct toward those held captive in solitary confinement. Restrictive housing is often located in an isolated and secluded area with no cameras. The screams and cries of those imprisoned within cannot be heard, and their wounds and injuries cannot be seen. I’ve been attacked so many times I’ve lost count.
To add insult to injury, I am denied gender-identifying hygienics and clothing now. When the Biden administration was in office, trans people were allowed gender-identifying items at my prison. However, since Trump’s administration took over, prison officials force me to wear women’s panties, denying me boxers. I’m often denied razors to shave my beard. The rare times I am lucky enough to receive a razor, the blade is dull, which leaves me to scrape my face with a cheap, flimsy piece of plastic and nickel that leaves my face raw, bloody, and scarred.
Being incarcerated in Texas prisons has always been unpleasant. But since the Trump administration took power, my living conditions and treatment have been profoundly more inhumane. More blatant discrimination from prison officials is another effect that has occurred. Something I’ve never dealt with until now is how we trans people are being subjected to religious abuse, where a chaplain (or representative from the chaplaincy department) comes to our cell doors offering conversion therapy to “heal” us of being transgender. If we refuse their help, they begin to shout at us, saying, “You’re a child of Satan,” while spitting and throwing holy oil or water at the cell door, condemning us to hell.
My being transgender has become the bane of my existence. Social and interpersonal aspects inside the prison walls have changed dramatically even since 2025. A simultaneous combination of fear and danger has been instilled in the incarcerated LGBTQIA community. Overall, life as trans person in Texas prisons is beyond difficult with Trump as president. Texas’s carceral system has deemed my gender identity public enemy number one. Sometimes I wake up and I hate being me, ashamed of who I am. Anti-trans policies aim to break the soul, kill the spirit, and annihilate trans people.
Safeguarding my mental health has become a daily battle. Although I haven’t succumbed to suicidal thoughts, many others have. I’ve received no attention from the mental health department even though I’ve sought help an incalculable number of times. When the Biden administration was in office, I received monthly checkups from mental health clinicians. Once Trump’s administration took office, those checkups ceased.
The external wounds may have healed, but internally, I am still injured and in pain. Scarred exteriorly from the Trump administration’s takeover, the fallout has been more than social brutality. Through resilience above all, I am able to tell my testimony, albeit in agony. My experiences have been nothing short of anguished filled days of misery. The destruction continues as I deal daily with uninvestigated warfare inside the walls of a Texas prison.
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