LGBTQ+ rights groups defend California policy protecting transgender inmates
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Lambda Legal, the Transgender Law Center (TLC) and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California (ACLU SoCal) on Monday filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit challenging a California law protecting transgender, nonbinary and intersex inmates.
Under a 2020 law, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is required to house inmates in correctional facilities designated for men or women based on their reported gender identity. The department must also recognize an inmate’s self-reported gender identity and pronouns.
A November lawsuit alleges the law violates the constitutional rights of cisgender women incarcerated in California.
Three LGBTQ+ organizations this week announced their intent to intervene in a lawsuit challenging a California nondiscrimination law that has protected transgender, nonbinary and intersex inmates in the state for more than a year.
California’s “Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act,” signed in 2020 by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, requires the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to recognize an inmate’s self-reported gender identity and pronouns.
The measure also requires the department to house inmates in correctional facilities designated for men or women based on their reported gender identity and regardless of their physical characteristics, in line with a Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) policy revised earlier this year.
If an inmate is denied placement in a facility aligning with their reported gender identity, CDCR must provide in writing “a specific and articulable basis why the department is unable to accommodate” the individual’s request, according to the law.
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In November, the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) – a self-described “radical feminist” organization known for its opposition to transgender rights – filed a federal complaint against CDCR, alleging that the law puts incarcerated cisgender women in danger and seeking, among other things, a permanent injunction against the law’s implementation.
According to the lawsuit, filed on behalf of four incarcerated women and Woman II Woman, a California nonprofit, the law “cannot be applied in any manner that avoids violating the federal and state constitutional rights of plaintiffs,” including protection from sexual assault and harassment.
WoLF has claimed that “hundreds of men” have applied for transfers to women’s prisons in California and “dozens” have already been moved to women’s facilities, resulting in intimidation and sexual violence “committed by men against female inmates.”
The group’s filing also claims that the law “coerces” incarcerated women in California “into using speech that reflects a belief to which a woman does not subscribe … in the form of pronouns that are self-selected by a person claiming a gender identity.”
The law also violates a woman’s “sincerely held religious beliefs” that forbid her from living with or undressing in front of a man other than her husband or close family member, according to the complaint.
WoLF did not immediately respond to Changing America’s request for comment.
In a motion to intervene filed Monday by Lambda Legal, the Transgender Law Center (TLC) and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California (ACLU SoCal), the groups argue that the lawsuit “intentionally misrepresents” concepts like gender identity and express their concern that CDCR and CDCR officials are not likely to “vigorously” defend the law because “it is a law that they not only refuse to fully implement, but regularly violate.”
The three organizations, along with pro-bono co-counsel O’Melveny & Myers, represent the Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP) and four transgender women incarcerated in California prisons – two of which are currently being housed in male facilities and face frequent sexual violence at the hands of other inmates and CDCR staff because they are transgender, according to the motion.
“These women … are entitled to have their voices heard in this litigation to preserve their rights and the protections afforded under California law,” the motion reads.
In a news release announcing the motion to intervene, Lambda legal accused the WoLF filing of rehashing “sensationalist and debunked claims about transgender women supposedly perpetrating violence.”
“If these plaintiffs get what they want, I’ll be sent back to a men’s prison, where I would face relentless sexual harassment and the constant threat of rape,” Tremayne Carroll, one of the individual plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said Monday in a statement. “That was my reality for years, and I am terrified to go back. I am a woman, and I don’t belong in a men’s prison.”
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