Relations Reporting on marriage, family, and sexuality

‘A stunning attack on incarcerated women’

Sexuality | California is on track to allow males who identify as females into women’s prisons
by Kiley Crossland
Posted 7/12/19, 05:04 pm

A bill working its way through the California state legislature this summer would allow incarcerated biological males who identify as transgender women to stay with female inmates in prison facilities.

The measure, which overwhelmingly passed the state Senate in late May and passed in a state Assembly committee in June, would require the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to ask individuals entering department custody about their gender identity and then to house them in correctional facilities for men or women based on that self-reported identity—with or without a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and regardless of anatomy or criminal history. The bill would also require facility staff use an inmate’s preferred name, pronoun, and honorific, and would allow inmates to change their gender identity while in prison. Current law mandates that the state house inmates according to their biological sex unless they have undergone sex change surgery.

Supporters of the measure, including its sponsor, Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, argue the bill is necessary due to escalating rates of assault and harassment in prisons against inmates who identify as transgender, especially men who identify as women. A 2009 University of California, Irvine, study cited by proponents of the bill found transgender inmates are 13 times more likely to experience sexual assault than the general population of inmates. A national study by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics found that from 2011 to 2012, almost 40 percent of transgender inmates reported being sexually victimized, compared to just 4 percent of the general prison population. In some cases, transgender inmates are placed in solitary confinement for their own protection, which limits their access to certain educational or religious programs and work opportunities.

Opponents of the measure argue the bill aims to solve a legitimate problem—helping incarcerated individuals with diagnosed gender dysphoria—with a terrible solution that will endanger one of the most vulnerable groups in society: incarcerated women. “Assembly members, you are living in a bubble if you think California voters want this,” Greg Burt, the director of capitol engagement for the California Family Council, told members of the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee in June. “Common sense screams out—this is a really, really bad idea.”

Abby Lunetta, a member of the Women’s Liberation Front, a radical feminist group, testified during the same hearing. “This bill permits male inmates to be housed with female inmates at the mere request of a male inmate, even though males commit violent crimes three times more often than women,” she said. Lunetta referenced the case of Richard Masbruch, a biological male in a women’s prison in Corona, Calif., who was convicted of raping and torturing women. “Under no circumstances is this morally justifiable,” she said.

A letter from Women’s Liberation Front members sent to state legislators on June 21 said that, in the bill, “a man’s ‘perception of safety’ is given more weight than the material factors that make women particularly vulnerable to male violence,” calling the measure a “stunning attack on incarcerated women and one of the most extreme examples of elevating men’s feelings over women’s physical and psychological safety.”

When asked by a committee member during the recent hearing how his bill would protect against inmates who are not “honest actors,” Wiener said the act gives the state corrections department discretion if it has a specific security concern about an individual, but “trans people aren’t the ones brutalizing other people; they are the ones being victimized.”

Earlier this year, the United Kingdom opened its first transgender prison unit amid controversy over its own policy of housing inmates according to their gender identity. The shift followed a spike in the number of male inmates who identified as female, as well as the highly publicized case of Karen White, a biological male convicted of violence against women who sexually assaulted two female inmates after being placed in a women’s prison. Recent numbers from the British Ministry of Justice showed 1 in 50 incarcerated males in the U.K. now identifies as transgender.

California state Assemblyman Devon Mathis, a Republican, asked Wiener why he wasn’t considering the lessons learned from Britain, including the idea of creating a separate unit for transgender inmates. “Well, because trans women are women, and trans men are men,” said Wiener. “And so you don’t create a transgender prison. What we’re saying is that if you’re a trans woman you’re a woman and you should be able to be housed as a woman.”

The measure is currently before the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Because it will cost the state more than $150,000 to implement, it was slated for a special hearing in August after the state budget is finalized. It is expected to pass.

iStock/TerryJ iStock/TerryJ

Equal opportunity?

Married couples in Britain could convert their traditional marriages to civil partnerships if the Government Equalities Office enacts plans it said it was considering this week.

Last year, British Prime Minister Theresa May introduced legislation to allow civil partnerships for opposite-sex couples after the highest court in the U.K. found laws allowing the arrangement exclusively for same-sex couples were discriminatory. The opposite-sex, cohabiting couple who filed the original suit said they believed the institution of marriage had patriarchal and sexist associations and they wanted legal recognition of their relationship without the title of marriage.

In addition to opening the door for opposite-sex couples to enter civil partnerships, the plans would provide a limited “conversion” period in which married, opposite-sex couples could switch to civil partnerships and same-sex couples could convert their civil partnerships into marriages.

Advocates argue the new law gives equality and choice to couples in Britain. But critics contend expanding civil partnerships unnecessarily allows couples to enter an alternative arrangement with less staying power than marriage. According to the latest government data, more Britons dissolved civil partnerships in 2017 than entered them. —K.C.

iStock/iweta0077 iStock/iweta0077

A declining reputation

A poll released this week by the Associated Press–NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found a decline in Americans’ opinions of clergy and religious leaders.

Just 55 percent of adults surveyed in May said they believe religious leaders have a positive effect on society, compared to 84 percent for teachers and 83 percent for doctors. Scientists and members of the military also scored higher.

Most American adults also reported being skeptical of the character of religious authorities, with only 34 percent of those polled convinced they are trustworthy individuals.

The report suggests the low numbers may be due to the sexual abuse scandals plaguing the Catholic Church and some Protestant denominations.

The poll also asked respondents about who should be clergy members. Nearly two-thirds of Catholics and mainline Protestants said they believed homosexuals should be accepted as clergy members in their faith, compared to one-third of evangelical Protestants. But the report found more agreement on women as clergy: More than 75 percent of evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants, and Catholics believe their churches should ordain women. —Loren Skinker

Agreeing to disagree

In a settlement announced this week, a Catholic school in Indianapolis agreed to help a teacher it fired last month for being in a same-sex marriage find employment elsewhere. Cathedral Catholic School thanked the teacher for his years of service, and the teacher said he did not wish the school any harm.

After nearly two years of deliberation, Indianapolis Archbishop Charles Thompson instructed the school to terminate the teacher’s employment in June. Thompson said it was his responsibility to hold the local Catholic community to the church’s teachings on the sanctity of marriage. —K.C.

Kiley Crossland

Kiley reports on marriage, family, and sexuality for WORLD Digital. Follow Kiley on Twitter @KileyCrossland.

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  • news2me
    Posted: Fri, 07/12/2019 06:04 pm

     "biological males who identify as transgender women to stay with female inmates"

    Me! Me! Take me! Time to PARTY!

    Whoa! There is going to be some evil stuff going on. Maybe they should just make the prisons co-ed and let people pair up just like in college dorms. HEY! We're all adults here. 

    Posted: Sat, 07/13/2019 06:43 pm

    Ive often wondered about the wisdom of allowing at least occasional interactions between male and female inmates. It could be a great incentive to better conduct in prisons! "If you want to ever look thru the glass at your lady friend again then from here on out you'll need to XYZ" or conversely: "Because you've repeatedly been a bad boy/girl you won't be allowed to compete in the ball room dance competition with your partner from the other side of the prison"

    I would require vasectomies and or tubal ligations which would be inevitable necessities. Having seen co-ed boot camp soldiers pulling KP duty be discovered in flagrante in mess hall custodial closets, the mixed gender interactions would require close supervision. Better inmates get involved with invested in other inmates than with wardens or guards. 


  • Nanamiro
    Posted: Fri, 07/12/2019 10:07 pm

    "Trans women are women. Trans men are men". Ideology is more important than making a realistic, well thought out decision that keeps everyone as safe as can be predicted. I'm astonished at how little these law makers care about reality and the best interests of women. They truly seem brainwashed!

    Posted: Sat, 07/13/2019 06:49 pm

    We've seen an epidemic of trans African American women being murdered. My hunch is these trans women go out and respond favorably to flattery. (I was told that therapists who work with trans women say on average they get aroused when they see themselves as women or else get aroused when others see them as women.) When men are told that the "Lady Boys" of Thailand are in fact women know one gets harmed or disappointed/embarassed. My other hunch is black trans women are killed when they finally reveal their at birth gender to the repulsed and/or angry/remorseful  suitor.

    It would therefore seem putting a trans woman in prison with males would more or less be a death sentence and require more resources allocated to the trans inmate.

    I have no insight into trans men in women's prison but I think in general trans men are less assaulted by women than trans women are assaulted by men.  

  • OldMike
    Posted: Fri, 07/12/2019 11:29 pm

    Re: male prisoners being able to self identify as “transgender” with no proof or background, and thus be assigned to women's prisons. If California goes through with this a lot of women inmates will be harmed.  

    Its obvious to me that someone has been “adding something” to California drinking water for a long time. Particularly in the Sacramento and San Francisco areas. 

    But California voters are the ones who have the power to end the insanity enacted by their legislature.  The fact that the voters haven’t ousted their looney state representatives and senators tells me they are fine with things the way they are. 

  • news2me
    Posted: Fri, 07/12/2019 11:47 pm

    I've often wondered if anyone is allowed to run against the status quo. How else would they keep voting in the same loonies?

    They did change their voting system so it's difficult for a Republican to win an election. 

  • news2me
    Posted: Fri, 07/12/2019 11:44 pm

    Re: A declining reputation

    There is more to it than sexual problems. Too many Protestant PASTORS are hired because they keep the audience's attention. Good speakers. Funny. Many times pastors are chosen by businessmen who hire based on their business hiring knowledge. And as the flock gets farther and farther away from listening to God and more and more listening to the world, the leaders tend to hire in that direction. The church thinks loud music will attract members. They are wrong.

    It's weird that many people leave the protestant church because they say they have too many RULES, yet they will join Islam or Mormons or other groups that have many more rules. 

    Protestant pastors need to lay down God's Laws and stick to God's Word on how to live. Some pastors go too far and others are wishy-washy. "You should volunteer, but if you don't want to it's ok." WHAT?! You need to tithe from your first fruits, not give from what's left over after you have spent it on entertainment. You can't afford to tithe, but you have a $200 phone with internet connections and cable TV and buy tickets to sports games, play golf, expensive house, fancy car, etc. 

  •  John Cogan's picture
    John Cogan
    Posted: Sat, 07/13/2019 12:00 am

    Housing biological males in women's prisons shows the results of relativism run amok. Saying a man is a woman does not make him one no matter what his psychological leanings tell him. And allowing rapists into women's prisons merely because they request to be allowed in,  borders on insane. Why do members of the California assembly think rapists WONT take advantage of this opportunity to have predatory reign? 

  • Midwest preacher
    Posted: Sun, 07/14/2019 06:04 am

    Interesting isn't it?  When we move away from what we Christians call Truth (capitalized on purpose) we enter a series of steps which force us to either deny what we've said before or press on into something we never wanted but are forced to accept.  The next logical step simply must be taken or we have to deny all our previous arguments.  We see this happening the the House of Representatives and in many progressive cutting edge ideas about sex and family.