Just how dangerous is the effort to mainstream transgenderism? Very, liberal feminists are warning. Six months into California's so-called Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act, the fallout has been especially severe in a place most people don't think about: women's prisons.
One of the unfortunate consequences of Governor Gavin Newsom's (D-Calif.) new law is that men can claim to be women or "nonbinary" and be transferred -- no questions asked -- to a female prison. So far, Brandon Showalter at the Christian Post warns, 255 have. In fact, he points out, "not a single 'gender-based housing' transfer request has been denied," meaning that female prisoners and female correctional officers are living in a state of fear and frustration.
Over at the extremely leftist Women's Liberation Front (WoLF), a group that normally wouldn't side with conservatives, is appalled that the state isn't putting women's safety first. "... [I]t's cruel and inhumane to try to solve this problem for only a small subset of at-risk men by deciding to have men's prisons and then mixed-sex prisons. California's women's facilities are mainly low-security, open-plan dormitories, and they're overcrowded already," they said.
Like most Californians who oppose the idea, they wish the state would create special units or wings for prisoners based on their identities. Instead, they're putting women -- many of whom have already been abused or assaulted -- in danger of rape, molestation, or worse. "The California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation itself acknowledges that putting men (90 percent of whom still have functional penises) in women's prisons presents a risk of pregnancy."
One inmate, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, said that staffers had actually told them to "expect violence" with the transfers. "I do think they should be safe," she agreed about the men posing as women, "but it infringes on my right to be safe as well," she said.
As for the actual officers at these prisons, some are resorting to aliases to tell their stories to the local media. If they aren't comfortable with the new law, they've said, they'll be fired. "They've already said we will be written up. All the way up to termination," one insisted. In an email to staff, one prison administrator warns that "Female staff that do not want to perform the strip out will be given a direct order by the supervisor to perform the strip out and if they still refuse that supervisor will author a memo and provide it to the facility captain in regards to insubordination."
"You're ordered to go strip out this inmate in a secure room," the anonymous corrections officer said, "... it takes your power away. Where's the boundaries? Boundaries are gone."
And under the Biden administration, those boundaries will continue to disappear -- not just in prisons, but in housing shelters, schools, sports, and everywhere else that women and girls will lose their right to privacy and safety. If the far-Left continues down this path of elevating transgenderism above common sense, then it's only a matter of time before more people get hurt.
