A trans-identified male currently incarcerated for raping two children and torturing an intellectually disabled man to death was among those highlighted in a sympathetic profile on the plight of transgender inmates under the Trump administration.
On December 5, Uncloseted Media published an article titled “Trans Women in State Prisons on Being Targeted by Trump,” which profiles several trans-identified males incarcerated across the United States and documents their perspectives in the wake of new federal policies and the broader political climate under President Donald Trump.
Uncloseted Media is a non-profit outlet is a media project launched by award-winning journalist Spencer Macnaughton, who has worked at 60 Minutes and The Wall Street Journal and currently teaches LGBTQ journalism at New York University. It is funded via corporate partnerships and has accepted significant donations from philanthropists, including angel investor and gay rights advocate Paul Grossinger.
While the outlet claims to offer “objective, nonpartisan, rigorous” journalism, it failed to mention the backgrounds of any of the trans inmates it profiled in its overwhelmingly sympathetic article.
Among the most shocking example of the omissions is Patricia Trimble, a trans-identified male inmate currently serving a 50-year sentence for two heinous crimes. In the Uncloseted Media article, Trimble is described as a “66-year-old trans woman, writer and advocate, has been incarcerated in men’s facilities in Missouri since 1979.”
The article details Trimble’s educational achievements since being incarcerated, and notes that “she’s used her education to advocate for herself, often through the Transgender Committee, a group of staff members required by law at each Missouri prison.”
To Uncloseted Media, Trimble complains about the Trump administration’s recent reforms, and claims that staff have recently begun denying his requests for “gender affirming” care. But while sympathetically detailing Trimble’s struggles in a men’s prison, the article fails to mention why Trimble is in prison in the first place.
Born Patrick, Trimble was first convicted in 1978 of the brutal rape of two 9-year-old girls in the city of St. Charles, Missouri. Trimble kidnapped the children by tying rope around their wrists and dragging them to his car. The girls were then taken to a remote, wooded area where Trimble proceeded to orally and vaginally assault them. He was arrested shortly after the girls were able to report their horrific ordeal.
But while in prison awaiting the final verdict on his case, Trimble would commit another heinous crime, making what the court would later describe as a “slave” out of his developmentally disabled cellmate and subjecting him to weeks of torture, rape, and abuse before murdering him.
Jerry James Everett, who was in jail awaiting trial for non-violent vehicular theft, was Trimble’s cellmate.
According to a 1982 court document, Trimble had initially gained Everett’s compliance by representing himself as a Christian minister. The court heard that Everett was extremely religious, and spent most of his time in prison reading the Bible. Trimble would force Everett “to have both oral and anal intercourse with him, compelled him to wear a ‘bra’ around the jail for the entertainment of the other inmates, and forced him at one point to display to the other inmates a rag that had been stuffed into his anus.”
Trimble prostituted Everett to other inmates, and even offered to sell him to a member of the prison staff for a carton of cigarettes. Trimble tortured Everett, making deep gashes in his flesh using burnt shampoo bottles, and lighting matches that were placed between his toes. Trimble also forced Everett to play games he did not have the intellectual capacity to understand, and would “win” his food from him after inevitably beating Everett in the game.
The court noted that Everett was “mentally slow, and may never have fully comprehended what was happening to him.”
A few weeks after beginning the sadistic abuse, Trimble advised other inmates he was planning on murdering Everett to prevent him from ever informing anyone outside of the prison of what had happened. He also stated that he was worried about being sent to prison if convicted solely of raping the two young girls, and wanted to “catch something much bigger” by committing a murder.
Trimble ultimately killed Everett, staging it to be a suicide. He forced Everett to pen a goodbye letter before strangling him to death with towels — using such force the young man’s neck was fractured. After Everett was dead, Trimble used the towels to hang his corpse so as to look like he had taken his own life.
During the trial, Everett’s mother testified that the suicide note was highly suspicious, recognizing that her son was not articulate enough to have written the letter on his own and noticing a number details in the letter that were inconsistent with her son’s beliefs and attitude towards life. Witnesses from within the prison also testified that they saw Trimble forcing Everett to write the note.
In 1980, Trimble was sentenced to death for his crimes — but, in 1985, the decision was commuted to a life sentence without the possibility of parole for 50 years. He is currently incarcerated in a men’s maximum security prison in Missouri.
Since his incarceration, Trimble has fashioned himself into a trans rights activist and has enjoyed some recognition by academics and advocacy organizations. Trimble currently has a book for sale on Amazon titled “Finding Purpose: One Transgender Woman’s Journey.”
In his Amazon author profile, Trimble is described as a “feminist, activist, and advocate for the incarcerated LGBTQ+ community,” and claims he was wrongly convicted for the crimes he is currently incarcerated for, thus indicating he takes little accountability for his actions.
Uncloseted Media did not mention any details about Trimble’s history in its article, and instead framed him as a victim of “anti-trans propaganda” and the Trump administration’s executive orders. While the federal government can not directly impact state institutions, the article suggests the political climate is still harming trans-identified males within state facilities.
Another inmate highlighted in the sympathetic article was Lexie Handlang, born Matthew Ethan Handlang. Handlang is currently serving a 20 year sentence for the murder of his own baby.
In 2014, Handlang, who was 26 at the time, pleaded guilty to child abuse resulting in death in the case of his 3-month-old daughter, Aubrey. While Handlang told police that the child had choked on some water during feeding time, an autopsy found that Aubrey had severe brain swelling, severe brain bleeding, bleeding in the spinal cord, and acute bleeding in the eyes, all injuries consistent with “shaken baby syndrome.”
Handlang later admitted that he repeatedly shook the child “until a clear liquid dripped from her nose” after becoming frustrated with her, and lied to police as he was worried about being arrested.
The article also features comment from Andrew Balcer, who now goes by the name Andrea. Balcer was one month shy of his eighteenth birthday when he murdered his mother, father, and family dog on Halloween night in 2016.
Balcer is currently incarcerated in a women’s prison in Maine after having legally changed his sex marker to “female” in 2022.
Uncloseted Media notes that Balcer had been at the center of a battle between the Trump administration and the state of Maine. In April, the Department of Justice pulled $1.4 million in funds from Maine’s Department of Corrections in response to Balcer’s continued accommodation in a women’s prison.
Speaking to Uncloseted Media, Balcer complained about how he was “bullied” by US Attorney General Pam Bondi, who described him as a “giant, 6-foot-1, 245-pound guy.” Balcer also says some women at his facility began to target him with transphobic rhetoric he claims was inspired by Bondi.
“The cultural backlash has been astounding,” Balcer told Uncloseted Media. “And it’s not that I don’t understand these women — I 100% understand their position … But they can’t take out their anger on the people who quite frankly deserve it, [so] they take out their anger on the people that are the indirect cause of this.”
The article concludes by referring to plight of trans-identified male inmates as a “horror” these men are overcoming through advocacy. Handlang cites “listening to their troubles, teaching them how to do their makeup and helping them buy hygiene products” among his ways of showing his “trans sisters” support.
“If you’re going to be an advocate or an activist … it can never be about you,” Trimble is quoted as saying. “It’s about our boys and girls that are suffering in this oppressive system.”
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