(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In June, Donna Langan settled a lawsuit against the Bureau of Prisons for “violating the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment by not providing gender confirmation surgery.”
Langan had already received a vaginoplasty and breast augmentation surgery on Jan. 5, 2023, but the trans inmate refused to drop the lawsuit at the time—arguing that the U.S. government should also pay for facial hair removal surgery.
Neither Langan nor the BOP has publicly confirmed whether the June settlement included free facial hair removal, but newly released BOP documents indicate that such medical services are now available to prisoners.
The BOP’s newly released Gender-Affirming Care of Transgender and Gender Nonbinary Persons—which updates December 2016 guidance on the matter—includes a new section on facial-hair removal. The updated guidance was drafted in June, which was the same month the BOP and Langan announced their settlement.
🚨 Biden is Transgendering Prisoners!
We obtained internal @OfficialFBOP guidance on exactly how. Doc at bottom of 🧵
Here are the instructions on dealing with bearded ladies and their facial hair https://t.co/uu7KVjVAvE pic.twitter.com/9dZcDOwn7S
— Oversight Project (@OversightPR) November 20, 2023
“Facial hair is often a source of distress and suffering for patients who identify as trans-female. Several noninvasive options are available to our incarcerated population. Patients can access the commissary to purchase extra razors, hygiene items such as hair removal creams and lotions, as well as foundation/coverage cremes/liquids to match the color of their skin,” the June 2023 guidance stated.
“When commissary items fail to achieve desired results, and there is continued Gender Dysphoria, Health Services may provide over-the-counter laser hair removal devices as medically necessary,” the guidance added.
“If these measures fail to remove the facial hair or are contraindicated (e.g., documented allergy or repeated infections) and patient has persistent unresolved Gender Dysphoria/incongruence, a referral consultation for professional laser facial hair removal or electrolysis may be submitted to the local Utilization Review Committee for consideration.”
Langan’s saga has been detailed extensively by Headline USA. It has only started to receive wider attention recently—most notably when Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, pressed BOP Director Colette Peters about the absurd situation at a congressional hearing earlier this month.
@RepTroyNehls presses Prisons Director Colette Peters on why the BOP provided a sex change to an ex-Nazi bank robber, who used the proceeds of his crimes to fund groups like the Aryan Nations.
See our prior coverage on the Nazi inmate here: https://t.co/w6veJpWmj8 pic.twitter.com/3EJ4DWNt0A— Headline USA (@HeadlineUSA) November 7, 2023
“Look at this guy. This is an interesting guy, folks. His name is Peter Langan … He looks like a bad, bad guy. He is a bad, bad guy. He’s an ex-Nazi terrorist. He’s a bad, bad hombre. And this guy wants to be referred to as Donna,” the congressman stated, displaying a Headline USA article about Langan.
“He’s claiming his Eighth Amendment rights were violated for not being provided gender-confirming surgery. For the people at home: This person is an ex-Nazi bank robber. In June, his lawsuit was settled. And I’d like to know whether this means that inmates now have the Eighth Amendment right to sex changes. Are we paying for guys like this, who are just sick?” he asked.
While Langan’s legal battle for trans rights in prison has attracted some media and congressional attention, the inmate’s connections to the Oklahoma City bombing have been a subject of interest for decades.
An avowed neo-Nazi by the early 1990s, Langan was imprisoned for armed robbery. But the U.S. Secret Service intervened to release Langan from prison to be a federal informant and help track down a fellow neo-Nazi who had been plotting to kill President George H.W. Bush and incoming President Bill Clinton.
However, Langan then went “rogue” and created the Aryan Republican Army, which went on to be the most prolific gang of bank robbers in the 90s.
When arrested in 1996, Langan told authorities that his fellow ARA members were involved in the OKC bombing, which killed 168 people, including 19 children. Multiple U.S. judges have ruled against Langan testifying about these allegations.
In his book In Bad Company, criminologist Mark Hamm explained the likely reason why the U.S. government has ignored Langan’s allegations about the OKC bombing.
“The real problem for the government, Langan concluded, was the embarrassing fact that the Secret Service had sprung him from jail back in 1993; after that, of course, he went on to form the Aryan Republican Army. And the weight of the evidence suggests that the Aryan Republican Army did, in the final analysis, play a direct role in the plot to bomb the Oklahoma City federal building,” Hamm wrote.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
