Y’all, this is explosive, or at least it should be. So I found out to my shocked dismay that trans-identifying men who are admitted into acute care psychiatric facilities are given female roommates, and with a bit of digging, was able to uncover both the roommate policy for multiple major psychiatric facilities (including Mt Sinai, the National Institutes of Health, the UCLA medical center, Johns Hopkins, Duke University, the University of Virginia, and the County of Los Angeles Health Department) and its source. These facilities are taking their policies from a “model policy” drafted by a prominent LGBTQ+ lobbying firm called Lambda Legal — sometimes word-for-word. To be clear, the people who wrote these policies have no psych background — and now, because of them, an 18 year old girl who is suicidal after a rape can be placed in a room with a 35 year old man, as long as he claims, on the day of admission, that he is a woman. His presentation doesn’t matter, and neither does his history. Even if he has never before identified publicly as a woman, they will give him a female roommate if he asks for one. I will point out that it is a common occurrence for criminals who are hiding from law enforcement to check themselves into these facilities, because without a warrant, the staff can neither confirm nor deny that they are holding someone. We have pulled rapists, pedophiles, and even lust murderers out of these facilities before. Sexual assaults are not unheard of even under normal circumstances — and even without the sexual element, people in crisis can be extremely dangerous and unpredictable. Under these circumstances, it is insane to put a man into a room with a female patient even if he does have a history of crossdressing. A wanted rapist could get himself admitted, claim to be a woman, and get a female roommate. I’m sure I can stop there. I will also note that the policy directs for trans patients be given priority when it comes to single rooms. This is blatant discrimination against normal patients, as — as I’m sure you can imagine — getting a single room in a psychiatric hospital is a major privilege, and these rooms are often assigned to patients who are especially unwell. Prioritizing trans patients over those who need privacy for other, non-elective reasons, is just more proof that these policies were written by people who have no idea what it’s like inside a psychiatric facility.