A group of biological female inmates incarcerated in California are suing the state’s Department of Corrections (CDCR) for allegedly violating their First Amendment rights by altering their official complaints about transgender sex offenders to remove references to ‘males.’
According to Just the News, “It’s the most unusual claim in the federal lawsuit filed this week by the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) on behalf of inmates Janine Chandler, Krystal Gonzalez, Tomiekia Johnson and Nadia Romero, who allege they are victims of either sexual or domestic violence.”
The women are challenging California Senate Bill 132, which they claim is unconstitutional because it allows prisoners choose their gender identity for the purposes of placement and bodily searches, and requires no actual sex reassignment surgery or hormone therapy.
When Romero filed a complaint about being “grabbed by a man in her unit,” and Gonzalez requested single-sex housing after a transgender inmate sexually assaulted her, prison officials described their attackers as transgender women or females.
Being housed with self-identified transgender prisoners who are anatomically male also constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the 8th Amendment, and violates their 14th Amendment equal protection rights, the suit claims. -Just the News
According to the lawsuit, the SB 132 puts biological women at “substantially increased risk of sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, and physical violence,” not to mention STDs and psychological fear, and functionally “transform[s] the California prison system from being sex-separated … to a system comprised of men’s facilities, and mixed-sex facilities.”
Read the rest of the report here.
