Do you have sources\accounts of transmasculine folks being v-coded?
For anyone who hasn't please read my first post on this issue!
V-Coding & prison rape: An essay on why prisoner rights are a transfeminist issue! (link)
V-coding is underresearched, ESPECIALLY outside of the USA. So it would be disingenuous to act like there are a lot of resources for the subject.
However, I do have a few things I can share about the treatment of trans men in prisons. Not all of these can necessarily be considered V-coding, but they do show sexual assault/harassment within prisons.
Unfortunately, the resources of experiences with transmascs in prisons are very limited, due to systemic erasure, forced detransitioning, and lack of proper categorization. Studies self admit this - for example, this study (link) outright says the following:
Quote 1! "Lack of transgender men."
Quote 2! "Transgender men were not represented.
Small sample size."
Quote 3! "Further, views from and regarding transgender men were particularly limited across the studies – which in part may reflect demographic characteristics within prisons as well as less definitive or clear categorization (as evidenced by reports from other prisoners and staff members, lack of clarity around gender identity and sexual orientation as related, but distinct constructs; or simply “systematic error” in measurement of gender as binary."
Additionally, in this video (which I will be referring to again later!) titled "Understanding the Realities of Incarcerated Transgender Men" (link), goes a lot into the outright erasure of trans men in prisons.
At 4:19 - 4:37, it is said:
"A lot of the topics that we're going to be discussing honestly really haven't been explored and researched. Research on transgender men is incredibly limited, and when we're thinking about how transmasculine identities intersect with incarceration, this research and dialogue is even further limited."
"Correctional staff who have had training on transgender people often only ever receive information on transgender women, leaving a huge gap in their understanding of trans men. And while ignorance and lack of training is a piece, there's also sometimes a complete denial that transgender men are real, with staff saying things like "trans men don't exist" or that trans men are not real men. And because of this deeply entrenched anti-trans bias, and often denial of their identity, transgender men are sometimes mischaracterized as troublemakers. They're frequently targeted for increased disciplinary sanctions, more than their cisgender women peers."
At 15:01 - 17:14, it is said:
Kris: "And, Ky, I know you and I have talked a lot about how trans men's identities are often denied and erased in detention, and I'm wondering if you can share a little bit more about how this looked in your situation, and in things that you've heard from other folks that are incarcerated."
Ky: "For me, the way that this looked was I was told by the warden of my institution - I was incarcerated in Georgia in a female's institution - and the warden told me that trans men do not exist. They had heard of trans women, so they were, I guess, a little familiar with that, but they told me that I pretty much didn't exist and I was standing in front of them. Done a lot of time in solitary confinement, because of them targeting me, because I refused a lot of searches, because I just felt as if it was not necessary. I was...it's a really bad thing, and it's kind of touchy for me, because in a lot of those situations and things that happened, it was just to humiliate me, and make me feel less than. I was told that I was pretending to be a man, that I didn't know who I was, it was a lot of times that those things happened and I did not have anyone to talk to on the outside about it at first until I got support from my family and friends. But being inside of that instituition and not having any contact with other trans guys or with anyone that even identified as gender non-conforming, even not having that it was very hard for me, because I was seen as different, I was treated different, not only by the staff, but also by the other people that were incarcerated with me."
At 32:33 - 32:48, it is said:
"And there have not really been robust studies that look at the victimization of incarcerated transgender men. Smaller reports have shown that at least 6% of transgender men reported sexual assaults by staff or other incarcerated people."
^IMPORTANT to note that it is SMALLER REPORTS, so the true statistics are likely very very inaccurate. 50% of (perisex) trans men suffer from sexual violence in the overall population (link), so you HAVE to imagine the rates of SV in prison must be really high, just drastically understudied.
So, with my very limited resources, keep all of this in mind - a lack of research DOES NOT MEAN something is not happening. It is just being made *invisible.*
Now, onto examples of sexual abuse & V-coding of trans men in prison. (Note that I am not calling all of these examples of V-coding; not everything here is examples of sex trafficking, but it *is* all indicative of sexual abuse.)
While this "isn't technically a prison" (even tho it basically is), there's this case with ICE's women's detention facility, of sexual abuse of 3 transgender men. They were also forced to do manual labor for little to no compensation, under the guise of "proving their manhood", which is eerily similar to how trans women are forced to do traditionally "feminine" labor for their imposed "husbands."
There's two articles that go over this, I'll snatch some quotes from both.
First, "ICE allegedly subjected trans men to forced labor & sexual abuse in women’s facility" (link)
At a women’s detention facility for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Louisiana, four detainees — three of whom identify as transgender men — allege they were subjected to forced labor, sexual assault, forcible touching, groping, physical abuse, and denial of medical attention at the hands of a former ICE assistant warden.
The complaints — filed by the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization, the ACLU, and the National Immigration Project — claim the abuse took place between 2023 and 2025, across two presidential administrations.
“It got to the point where he would harass me everywhere that I went,” Monica Renteria-Gonzalez, who identifies as male, told Newsweek in an interview from the South Louisiana Detention Center in Basile.
“If I was in the recreation yard, he would come and he would follow me. If I was eating at the dining hall, he would come and just sit there next to me, making me feel uncomfortable. He would follow me into the dorm,” Renteria-Gonzalez added.
Detainee complaints about the abusive conditions were allegedly met with the same repsonse: “‘If you wanna be a man, I’ll treat you like a man’, or ‘Aren’t you strong enough? Aren’t you a man?’”
The forced labor included pushing heavy cinder blocks or metal cabinets across a dorm before detainees were ordered to push them back to where they came from.
“We never had the proper [personal protective equipment] and stuff like that. We never got paid. If we did, it would be like a dollar, no more than five at a time,” Renteria-Gonzalez said. “Or we would work for like a bag of chips or a snack bag from the kitchen, or a soda, just small things like that.”
When the detainees complained, they said they faced retaliation, including being placed in solitary confinement. Garcia-Valenzuela said he was beaten and handcuffed.
Second: "New complaints expose pattern of systemic sexual abuse, harassment, and forced labor at Louisiana ICE facility" (link)
The three transgender people, Kenia Campos-Flores, Monica Renteria-Gonzalez, and Mario Garcia-Valenzuela, were targeted by the same warden for hard manual labor in an unsanctioned “night shift program.” They received sub-minimum wages ranging from $1 to $5 a day to work in unsafe conditions between the hours of 8pm and 6am. At one point, while stripping floors, the harsh chemicals dissolved the fabric on Renteria-Gonzalez’s shoes and burned the skin of his feet. The Assistant Warden targeted these people on the basis of their transgender identities, taunting them by asking, “Aren’t you a man? Can’t you do manly work?”
Campos-Flores, Renteria-Gonzalez, and Garcia-Valenzuela also endured sexual harassment and abuse from the Assistant Warden and other SLIPC officers, including repeated comments about their appearance and gender identity. In two separate instances, the Assistant Warden approached Renteria-Gonzalez from behind and forcibly placed his groin directly against Renteria-Gonzalez’s buttocks.
“Regardless of our immigration status, at the end of the day we are human beings and we still have rights and feelings and we still matter, even if we are detained,” said Renteria-Gonzalez. “We want to raise awareness of the fact that this type of abuse does happen inside these detention facilities. Our rights are being violated everyday. This is a privately run facility that profits from our suffering. They are using us to make a profit but denying us medical care, food, even the most basic things like proper clothes and mattresses.”
“Our families and people outside trust that we are cared for in here and taken care of, but the reality is that we are not,” said Garcia-Valenzuela. “Every day, the U.S. government is abusing people in its care. It is even harder on people who identify as transgender because we are singled out and discriminated against. This facility must be closed down. They are incapable of treating us like human beings. The American people need to know what is happening inside these facilities.”
Moving on, I'd like to bring attention back to the video "Understanding the Realities of Incarcerated Transgender Men", and discuss the sexual assault segment.
At 33:00 - 35:17, it is said:
"I also mentioned abusive searches. And unfortunately, abusive searches by staff are very common for transgender men. Several people that I spoke to - again, both incarcerated in a prison women in the West Coast - every single transgender man that I spoke to disclosed having experienced an abusive search at some point where staff would grope their chest or their crotch at length, while making comments about their body, stating things about them being a man or not being a man, and really just saying really inappropriate things about their body.
Transgender men also experience corrective rape or sexual assault by staff or other incarcerated people. And many survivors recount being told that the rape would 'help make them a woman', or they would be forced to perform sexual acts on others 'cause it would 'prove that they're a real man.'
So these are things that we hear all the time from survivors that we work with, and they have just a horrible impact on people's ability to live and people's ability to heal. Again, because a lot of this violence just directly attacks that person's identity, and something so intrinsic to who they are, sometimes the impact of that assault can have really lifelong effects.
And abuse and violence like the types of things that I've shared are 100% inhibited across the board in every state, every jurisdiction. However, what we see is that when a report is made, it's often not taken seriously, and very little, if anything, is done to prevent that person from being harmed. Sometimes, when a survivor comes forward about sexual abuse, they are placed in solitary confinement within the institution in an attempt to keep the survivor "safe." But instead, this can take an enormous psychological toll, as well as causing issues with programming and access to other resources. Again, all of this goes against what our laws say, what the Prison Rape Elimination Act recommends, but unfortunately that's what we see most often take place.
Next, I *have* to mention how the Trump administration set up a policy to forcefully detransition trans people (of all kinds). One of the studies that they referenced as a "reason" for this policy was specifically centered around trans men on androgens, and their fertility.
While it's not "confirmed" to be the case, it can be concerningly suspected that there is motivation to revive these trans men's fertilities in order to forcefully impregnate them. Which could be reflective of undercover sex trafficking of trans men with uteruses.
Meanwhile, the fourth study analyzes fertility in 18 trans men who paused their hormone therapy in order to have children, and it constitutes the only fertility study the BOP admits to have reviewed. As if that wasn’t alarming enough, this specific study doesn’t evaluate *if* trans men can carry children after going off testosterone; it actually evaluates *when.* Given the fact that the BOP has no legitimate reason to concern itself with fertility, this implies that the Trump administration—at least in part—created the prison policy out of a desire to find out how soon the forcibly detransitioned trans men in its custody will be able to carry children.
Next, some quotes from "Strip searches, trauma, isolation: Trans men describe life behind bars." (link)
"I was then transferred to a women’s unit, where the big nightmares occurred,” he wrote in an email. Over the next few months, he endured “voyeuristic strip searches by female staff,” was forced to grow out his hair and was sexually harassed by other prisoners, he said. “So many incidents occurred at the female unit I nearly lost count."
In March 2018, Graham turned himself in to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to begin serving his sentence. Although he had transitioned medically years before and “passed” as a man in his daily life, Graham did not fit neatly into the binary categories of “male” or “female,” and for that, he said, he paid. On his first day in custody at the men’s prison where he was first sent, two correctional officers began to strip search him inappropriately, he said.
“The officer asked me to lie down on a table, then told me to spread my legs and hold them open,” Graham said, adding that he was then instructed to pull his genitalia back so the officer could “get a better look.” He said he could see that the officer was getting an erection. When the search was over, Graham said, he told a counselor at the facility what had happened.
After an invasive exam at the nurse’s office, “they moved as fast as they could to get me out of there,” he said. Graham also filed a sexual abuse complaint about the incident, which, he said, was never pursued by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. (With Graham’s permission, NBC News requested a copy of Graham’s medical file and complaint history. The department denied the request; Graham was able to provide copies of several records he had.)
After having spent several weeks at an Austin jail, Graham was transferred to a women’s prison run by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. But rather than offer him greater safety and security, the women’s prison “was a million times worse,” he said. Upon his arrival, Graham said, he underwent a strip search in view of a large group of incarcerated women.
“They forced me to bend over and open up my legs to make sure I didn’t have a hidden penis,” he said.
Graham recalled experiencing near-constant verbal abuse from staff members from then on. In a grievance form he filed while he was incarcerated, Graham described an incident in which an officer became enraged at him, screaming, “You were born a fucking girl, you’re at a woman unit.”
“I do not expect an officer to berate me and argue with me and declare as if they’re God in front of other offenders,” Graham wrote in the May 2019 complaint, according to a copy provided by Graham and reviewed by NBC News.
Graham said women on his unit would undress and climb into his bed at night saying they were going to have sex with him or would try to look at his body while he was showering, even though he was supposed to be permitted to shower alone.*
Prison staff members did not take steps to keep him safe, he said. After staff members were alerted to one particular incident, he spent about 10 days in “safekeeping,” a form of isolation also known as protective custody. Incarcerated trans people often end up in protective custody for their purported protection, because they are uniquely vulnerable to sexual and physical assault when they are in the general population. But the conditions in protective custody generally mirror the conditions faced by those in disciplinary isolation. When he was in safekeeping, Graham said, he was fed through a door and had very limited access to showers or his property. After a third time in safekeeping, Graham said, he was fed up and vowed never to end up there again.
*The women climbing on him and watching him shower brings up a question of whether or not he was placed intentionally with women who would sexually harass him.
Also, a shout out to the horrific case described in "A Prison Used Solitary Confinement to Force a Trans Man to Undergo a Genital Exam, Lawsuit Alleges" (link). Be careful reading this, it gets semi-descriptive.
