Hello! It’s been a while. This is a quick note to say that I’m still here and working on a piece about Australian detransitioner activism in the 2000s. In the meantime, here is an edited version of a blog post I wrote for WRNA’s Respect Our Sex campaign in August 2023. Much has happened in this space since then, so please forgive some outdated details. A huge thank you to all the women involved in the NSW campaign. This is not over yet.
Despite the obvious safety issues posed by placing men in women's prisons, this is precisely what sex self-ID polices enable. While most males do not assault women, the overwhelming majority of violent crimes are committed by males and the overwhelming majority of victims of sexual assault are females. This is one of many reasons why prisons are sex-segregated.
Yet, in multiple jurisdictions around the world, including here in Australia, female prisoners are forced to share facilities with males who claim to have a female gender identity. Meaning that many women's prisons are now actually mixed-sex.
Advocates of the practice say that trans-identified males are less likely to be a danger to women, but the evidence suggests otherwise.
A study in Sweden found that male pattern offending persists among trans-identified males who have undergone sex-reassignment surgery (1). Statistics obtained by Fair Play For Women revealed that in England and Wales “half of the male prisoners who declared themselves transgender in 2019 have been sentenced with one or more sexual offences” (81 out of 163 prisoners, 2). This is compared to only 16% of male prisoners overall (3). Similar statistics are also reported in the United States and Canada. No such statistics are available in Australia, where authorities remain tight lipped.
Incarcerated trans-identified males pose at least the same risk to women as other men, if not double. Although some jurisdictions have "safeguarding" measures in place to avoid violent trans-identified male offenders being placed in female prisons, in practice these measures are inconsistently applied or ignored, resulting in violent male offenders being housed in women's prisons.
One such male is currently in a women’s correctional facility in Victoria where the authorities callously disregarded the female prisoners' petition in protest. When journalist and podcaster Stassja Frei wrote about the issue for The Spectator in 2022, the headline declared: Men in women’s prisons is a human rights violation.
Female prisoners are more likely than other women to have experienced physical abuse, sexual assault, traumatic brain injury, mental illness (depression, PTSD), and poverty (4). Placing men among this population is a recipe for disaster.
As you'll hear in the stories below, many trans-identified males in women's prisons have not undergone any hormonal or surgical interventions, so have their genitals intact. Current and former female prisoners report the men loitering around the showers, engaging in overtly sexual behaviour, making threats, physically and sexually harassing inmates, and causing dysfunction in formally cohesive female prison units. Unsurprisingly, numerous rapes and sexual assaults have been committed - all of which were preventable.
The placement of violent trans-identified males in women's prisons will become the norm if sex self-ID becomes law in NSW via Alex's Greenwich's "Equality" bill. Indeed, such males will be entitled to be placed in women's prisons under this act, and be able to sue for discrimination if they are not. Equality for who? Not for women.
Males who might be at an increased risk of violence in men's prisons ought to be accommodated in separate units within the male estate, rather than placed in female prisons. Women should not have to endure any further compromise to their safety and dignity in prison. I commend these women for sharing their stories.
Former prisoner Amanda Benson was in prison with two trans-identified males, one a murderer, and the other a domestic abuser. In an interview on the Women's Rights Network UK podcast, Amanda reveals the impact this had on the safety, dignity and privacy of female inmates and prison staff. Read more of her story at the Daily Record.
“My whole time in prison on constant high alert, my nerves were frazzled with fear.
“These incredibly violent men were walking around the communal shower area naked and sometimes clearly aroused. Myself and other women were in cubicles with only a curtain to protect us.
“I was shaking with fear. In the end I went to the prison clinic and had a coil fitted because I believed I could be raped at any time. I didn’t want one, I felt forced to do it.”
Cheryle Kempton is one of four women who were sexually assaulted in a women's jail by the notorious trans-identified male sex offender and convicted pedophile Stephen Wood/Karen White. Despite his history of violent offences against women he was still placed in a women's prison because he self-identified as one. Cheryle told her story to The Mail in the hopes it would give other women the courage to speak up.
‘At first the pair struck up a friendship, but within three days, while left alone in the workshop, White coarsely demanded that mother-of-two Cheryle perform a sex act.’
“Karen White faked being transgender to abuse women and the authorities enabled her to assault and prey on us.”
Journalist Julie Bindel spoke with Amy in a story for the Daily Mail. She was sexually assaulted in a women's prison by a trans identified male who was incarcerated for sexually assaulting a child. Amy took legal action against the prison after they failed to act.
“What were the officers even thinking, letting her clean toilets in which women would be in a state of undress and alone? Why was there a child sex offender with a penis cleaning the toilets of the gym in a women's prison?”
“She would wear very tight trousers which made it obvious she had male genitals. The prison officers protected her more than they did us. They were terrified of being accused of transphobia.”
Maggie, a prison volunteer, shares testimonies from former and current female prisoners about being housed with male offenders, at a protest for single sex prisons.
"I was expected to share prison accommodation with the man who sexually assaulted me. This has traumatised me deeply and I can't understand the cruelty behind this."
Former Prison Governor in Scotland, Rhona Hotchkiss, speaks to the Women's Rights Network UK podcast about the impact of placing males with vulnerable women in prison. Rhona is now the director of Beira’s Place, a women’s sexual assault support service in Edinburgh, founded by JK Rowling.
"The majority don't identify as trans until they've been arrested, or brought to court, or sentenced, or are already in prison” (some people now call this, in jest, Rapid Prison Onset Gender Dysphoria).
Women's Rights group Gender Dissent share letters from female prisoners in Canada who have been forced to be housed with trans-identified males.
“I ... feel that men in female institutions have more rights than women, and are more protected.”
“..he would prey on the young 20 year old girls in our unit, making them feel uncomfortable, to a point where we felt we had no choice but to keep our doors locked at all times.”
“A young woman was sexually harassed by a transgender man. In order to appear politically correct, the guards sided with the transgender male and did not provide support for the young woman who was traumatized.”
Former prisoner and women’s rights activist Heather Mason discusses the dysfunctional impact of males in women's prisons in Canada in this interview with Benjamin Boyce.
Tomiekia Johnson is a survivor of domestic violence who is currently serving 50 years for killing her abusive husband in an act of self-defence. She is one of four women being represented by WoLF, who is suing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The lawsuit seeks to overturn SB 132, a law that permits males to be housed in women’s correctional facilities based on their self-declared "gender identity". WoLF says "This law has caused pervasive, foreseeable, and well-documented physical and psychological damage to incarcerated women."
Amie Ichikawa is the director of Women II Women, a non-profit that provides support and advocacy for incarcerated women. Through WIIW she advocates for the dignity and safety of women in prison, and speaks out about the horrendous impact of sex self-ID on female prisoners in the United States. Below, she discusses this issue in two powerful interviews with Derrick Jensen of Resistance Radio and Benjamin Boyce. In the later interview, Amie shares a case of sexual assault committed by a trans identified male in a women’s prison in Texas which is particularly harrowing.
References
Cecilia Dhejne, Paul Lichtenstein, Marcus Boman, Anna L. V. Johansson, Niklas Långström, Mikael Landén (2011) Long-Term Follow-Up of Transsexual Persons Undergoing Sex Reassignment Surgery: Cohort Study in Sweden.
Jess Williams and Steph Hughes presentation on trans identifying males in women's prisons, Women’s Declaration AU/NZ.
Image credit: Wirestock, Freepik
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