ACLU Civil Liberties Union of Delaware
Defending Individual Rights and Personal Freedom
LGBT Rights
Letter to Federal Bureau of Prisons on Behalf of MTF Transgender Inmate
On December 22, 2006, the ACLU of Delaware wrote a letter to the Federal Bureau of Prisons in an attempt to persuade the BOP to place a pre-operative Male-to-Female (MTF) transgender prisoner convicted in Delaware of a non-violent crime, to a women’s facility or to a halfway house, rather than to a men’s prison facility.
The classification and designation of prisoners based solely on whether they have undergone genital surgery puts MTF transgender prisoners at considerable risk of threats, assault, rape and other forms of sexualized violence, and even death. Men’s prisons facility are often unable to accommodate the special security needs of MTF transgender prisoners. As a result, many resort to an overly punitive segregated housing placement to protect them from the inevitable threats of violence and harassment from male prisoners.
When considering whether to place MTF transgender prisoners in a women’s prison, our letter explained, it is important to remember that transgender women do not, because of their gender identity, pose any risk of harm to other female inmates. Transgender women are, in fact, women, and they face the same risk of physical harm and sexual abuse that other women would face if placed in a men’s facility.
Smith v. Smith: Lesbian Custody Case Dismissed by Delaware Supreme Court
On December 7, 2005, the ACLU of Delaware, along with the ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, Children and Families First, and the Delaware Coalition Against Domestic Violence, submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of Delaware in Smith v. Smith, a case about the right of children born to same-sex couples to legal recognition of their parent-child relationships.
On March 7, 2006, the Delaware Supreme Court dismissed the case because of a procedural technicality. The result of the Court’s decision was to leave in effect the decision of the Family Court, which had ordered the separated couple to share custody of the children they brought into the world and raised together. The dismissal, however, left critical questions unanswered about the legal status of families headed by same-sex couples and the rights their children will have in the unfortunate event of parental separation.
(true names redacted per Family Court Rules)