V-coding

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V-coding is the common practice in the United States to subjugate transgender female prisoners to daily sexual assaults in all-male jails to please or calm down male prisoners.[1][2][3][4]

A 2021 report found that 69% of transgender women were subdued into performing sexual oral practices against their will in all-male prisons, 58.5% reported being sexually assaulted, and 88% reported being forced into some "marriage-like" relationships with their respective male inmates.[2][3]

Context

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Further information: Transgender rights in the United States

Reports found that transgender people are significantly more susceptible to being victims of sexual assaults and sex trafficking than cisgender peers.[5][6][7][8][9][10] As such, the DoJ stated in a report of 2022 that 66% of trans people experience sexual assault at some point in their lives, and 15% of trans people report being sexually assaulted by police or prison staff (32% for African-American trans people).[8]

In 2025, more than 2,000 transgender women were in federal jails in the US.[11]

Description

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A 2018 report from the Indiana Maurer University School of Law, along with a subsequent report in the UCLA Journal of Gender and Law,[12] found that, based on accounts of former inmates, it was common for trans women placed in men's prisons to be assigned to cells with aggressive cisgender male cellmates to maintain social control and to, as one inmate described it, "keep the violence rate down", or as prison authorities stated, "violence prevention". Trans women used in this manner are often raped daily. This process is known as "V-coding", and has been described as so common that it is effectively "a central part of a trans woman's sentence".[4][13]

The prisoners serving as "customers" for these women are informally referred to as "husbands". A 2021 California study found that 69% of trans women prisoners reported being made to perform sexual acts they would have rather not, 58.5% reported being violently sexually assaulted, and 88% overall reported having taken part in a "marriage-like relationship".[2][3][4] Trans women who physically resist the rape are often criminally charged with assault and placed in solitary confinement, the assault charge then being used to extend the woman's prison stay and deny her parole.[14]

It is common for correctional officers to publicly strip search trans women inmates, putting their bodies on display for staff members and other inmates. Trans women in this situation are sometimes made to dance, present, or masturbate at the correctional officers' discretion.[15] A 2017 study by the Sylvia Rivera Law Project found that 75% of trans women respondents in New York state prisons were subjected to sexual violence by a correctional officer, with 32% being victimized by two or more COs and 27% of respondents being forced to perform oral sex for a CO.[16]

History

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Following Executive Order 14168 signed by Donald Trump on the inauguration day of his second presidency where he defined sex and gender as one and the same as biological constant, and where he clearly stated that female inmates should be relocated to all-male jails,[17][11] many female transgender prisoners and several organizations issued lawsuits against the federal State, stating that such order violated the Eighth Amendment's "protection from cruel and unusual punishment" partly because of V-coding,[3][18][19] arguing that they "feared for their lives".[20] Several judges blocked Trump's order,[3][21][22] but federal officials relocated trans women into all-male prisons anyway despite the rulings.[22][23]

Non-incarcerated transgender women revealed they were scared of becoming imprisoned for simply being transgender and thus experiencing V-coding since Trump's second presidency.[24][25]

References

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  1. ^ Oparah, Julia C. (April 24, 2013). "Feminism and the (Trans)gender Entrapment of Gender Nonconforming Prisoners". UCLA Women's Law Journal. 18 (2). doi:10.5070/L3182017822.
  2. ^ a b c Jenness, Valerie; Sexton, Lori (May 27, 2022). "The centrality of relationships in context: a comparison of factors that predict the sexual and non-sexual victimization of transgender women in prisons for men". Journal of Crime and Justice. 45 (3): 259–269. doi:10.1080/0735648X.2021.1935298. ISSN 0735-648X.
  3. ^ a b c d e McNeill, Zane (January 28, 2025). "Incarcerated Trans Woman Sues Trump Over Anti-Trans Order Redefining "Sex"". Truthout. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
  4. ^ a b c "How 'V-Coding' Demonstrates The Violence Of Rape And Prison Culture". pushblack.us. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
  5. ^ Goldsmith, Belinda (April 25, 2017). "Transgender sex trafficking survivor hopes her story will help others". Reuters.
  6. ^ Tomasiewicz, Meaghan. "Sex Traffifficking of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Youth in the United States".
  7. ^ Newman-Granger, Ellie (December 8, 2021). "Gendered Understandings of Forced Sexual Exploitation". Archived from the original on September 28, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
  8. ^ a b "Responding to Transgender Victims of Sexual Assault". Archived from the original on June 25, 2022.
  9. ^ "The Report of the 2015 US Transgender Survey Executive Summary" (PDF). December 2016.
  10. ^ thisisloyal.com, Loyal |. "Transgender people over four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crime". Williams Institute. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
  11. ^ a b Law, Diamond McAllister | Vermont; School, Graduate; US (June 5, 2025). "US judge blocks enforcement of Trump's transgender prison policy". www.jurist.org. Retrieved September 27, 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ Oparah, Julia C. (April 24, 2013). "Feminism and the (Trans)gender Entrapment of Gender Nonconforming Prisoners". UCLA Women's Law Journal. 18 (2). doi:10.5070/L3182017822.
  13. ^ Kulak, Ash (May 22, 2018). "Locked Away in SEG 'For Their Own Protection': How Congress Gave Federal Corrections the Discretion to House Transgender (Trans) Inmates in Gender-Inappropriate Facilities and Solitary Confinement". Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality. 6 (2).
  14. ^ Stanley, Eric; Smith, Nat (October 27, 2015). Captive Genders. AK Press. p. 229. ISBN 9781849352345.
  15. ^ Kulak, Ash Olli (May 22, 2018). "Locked Away in SEG 'For Their Own Protection': How Congress Gave Federal Corrections the Discretion to House Transgender (Trans) Inmates in Gender-Inappropriate Facilities and Solitary Confinement". Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  16. ^ "It's Still War in Here: A Statewide Report on the Trans, Gender Non-Conforming, Intersex (TGNCI) Experience in New York Prisons and the Fight for Trans Liberation, Self-Determination, and Freedom" (PDF). Sylvia Rivera Law Project. 2017.
  17. ^ House, The White (January 21, 2025). "Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government". The White House. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
  18. ^ Harmon, Amy (January 27, 2025). "Inmate Sues the Trump Administration Over Transgender Executive Order". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 30, 2025. Retrieved January 30, 2025.
  19. ^ Raymond, Nate; Scarcella, Mike (January 27, 2025). "Transgender inmate sues over Trump's order curtailing LGBT rights". Reuters. Retrieved September 24, 2025.
  20. ^ Schwartzapfel, Beth (February 21, 2025). "Trans Women Federal Prisoners Told They Will Be Housed With Men". The Marshall Project. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
  21. ^ Raymond, Nate (January 30, 2025). "US judge blocks Trump administration from transferring transgender inmate". Reuters. Retrieved September 24, 2025.
  22. ^ a b Levin, Sam; Johnson, Kaley (March 7, 2025). "Trans women transferred to men's prisons despite rulings against Trump's order". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
  23. ^ "Transgender women moved to men's prisons amid judicial block". advocate.com. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
  24. ^ Fiorillo, Victor (June 6, 2025). "Philly Trans Woman Raising Money on GoFundMe So She Can Escape to Canada". Philadelphia Magazine. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
  25. ^ "Hundreds of people gather at state Capitol to protest Trump administration | Arkansas Democrat Gazette". www.arkansasonline.com. April 12, 2025. Retrieved September 27, 2025.