Q: What are the rights of a deputy against searching a transgender person of the opposite sex?
Transgender individual chooses to be searched by a deputy of opposite sex, deputy is forced to searched person or be fired. Told their personal beliefs do not matter and as a deputy they have no rights only a job to do. A deputy of the same sex as the transgender was available for a search . Told due to the PREA act the transgender can choose who searches them and the deputy has to comply with their wishes or face disciplinary action for violating PREA standards and loss of job. Does a deputy have the right to refuse to search an individual of the opposite sex if insinuating circumstances do not exist?
A:
I assume you are referring to the Prison Rape Elimination Act, a federal statute. If so, your use of the phrase "the PREA act" is redundant (in the same way "Rio Grande River" is redundant).
Also, instead of "insinuating circumstances", I assume you mean extenuating circumstances.
Finally, an expensive collection of resources on PREA is here: https://ojp.gov/programs/prisonrapeelimination.htm
I see nothing about searches of transgender individuals. But if the deputy was ordered to conduct the search, he or she should have done so, or probably will appropriately face disciplinary action. If, on the other hand, the individual to be search demanded to be searched by a person of the "opposite sex" (and with respect to a "transgender" individual, what that means is not clear), that demand probably won't carry as much weight.
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