Prisoners who are LGBT+
PAS’ two Self Help Toolkits for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) prisoners – A Prisoner’s Guide to LGB Rights and A Prisoner’s Guide to Trans Rights – provide advice and information on: the legal and human rights of LGBT+ prisoners, reporting homophobic and transgender abuse and violence, cell sharing, making complaints, case boards, healthcare, searches in prison and applying for a Gender Recognition Certificate. They were produced in association with letter-writing organisation, Bent Bars and made available through the kind support of The Tudor Trust and The Paul Cottingham Trust. A revised and updated edition of the trans guide was published in December 2023.
Currently 6% of men and 18% of women in prison identify as gay/lesbian or bisexual. (Prison Reform Trust (PRT) February 2025) In 2024-25, 15% of callers to our Advice Line, 24% of letter-writers and 17% of Outreach Clinic attendees did not identify as heterosexual.
The United Nations recognises LGBT+ people as a particularly vulnerable group in prison. Such prisoners often hide their sexual orientation through their own fears and in response to the hostility of prison staff and fellow inmates, who may engage in homophobic bullying, abuse and sexual assault. Disturbingly, this is often met with no intervention from guards who do not wish to be seen as sympathetic to LGBT+ prisoners.
As of March 2024, there were 305 transgender people imprisoned in England and Wales – ten of whom had a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). Of those without a GRC, 227 identified as trans women and 49 as trans men. Only five of the 227 trans women were housed in women’s prisons. Five or fewer trans men are housed in a men’s prison.
In 2024, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture recommended that transgender people should be housed in prisons corresponding to their self-identified gender, subject to individualised assessments. For those who are incarcerated in prisons which do not reflect their self-identified gender, the consequences can be devastating, with multiple complications and, in some instances – as in a number of high-profile cases – to suicide.
Throughout 2024-25, 1% of Advice Line callers and 4% of letter-writers stated that their gender identity was different to that assigned at birth.
PAS welcomes contact from LGBT+ prisoners.
