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Hurt feelings shouldn’t trump reality
A women’s group in California has filed a lawsuit to stop transgender, nonbinary and intersex inmates at state prisons being housed according to feelings instead of biological reality.
The Women’s Liberation Front, which also opposes transgender female athletes’ participation in girls’ and women’s sports, filed the lawsuit in federal court alleging that Senate Bill 132 is unconstitutional and creates an unsafe environment for women in female facilities.
The complaint does not refer to people who transfer to female facilities by female or nonbinary pronouns such as she or they, instead referring to them as men.
“The foundational basis of our lawsuit is that these are male offenders being housed in women’s prisons,” said Lauren Adams, legal director for the Women’s Liberation Front. “To pretend that they are female, in language or what we say about them or how we talk about them, goes against the whole basis of the lawsuit.”
Activists are upset by the lawsuit, they claim that calling men who appropriate womanhood “males” hurts their feelings and is not respectful.
Under the bill enacted earlier this year, 291 inmates housed at male facilities have requested to be moved to female facilities, according to data provided Wednesday by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The department has granted 41 requests and denied six. Ten applicants “changed their minds,” according to the department. The remaining requests remain under review.
Seven inmates have requested transfers to male facilities and those requests are also under review.
Spokeswoman for Binary, Kirralie Smith, said women’s safety must be paramount.
“Hurt feelings should not trump reality. Housing males in female prisons is dangerous and an invasion of women’s privacy,” she said.
“Biological reality makes women vulnerable to attacks by males.
“These men who appropriate womanhood should be housed in male prisons or in a detention facility that houses transgender prisoners together.”
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