Speaking of “narratives”…
Transgender prisoners “with male genitalia” should no longer be held in women’s prisons, the justice secretary has announced.
That is, men should no longer be held in women’s prisons, even if they claim to be trans.
In a parliamentary statement, Brandon Lewis said he would bring forward a new policy on the issue later this year.
“Under the reforms, transgender prisoners with male genitalia should no longer be held in the general women’s estate,” he added.
“This will not be a blanket rule; exemptions to these new rules will be considered on a case-by-case basis. This will also apply to transgender women who have been convicted of a sex offence.”
What will? The rule, or the fact that exemptions will be considered? What will also apply, the rule, or the fact that exemptions will be considered?
A parliamentary committee previously found there was a risk of violence, sexual assault, self-harming and suicide “where trans prisoners are not located appropriate to their acquired/affirmed gender”.
What about the risk of violence and sexual assault when men are located “appropriate to their acquired/affirmed gender”? That’s the important bit. The issue is women in prison trapped with men who could assault them.
Several trans women have killed themselves in male prisons in the past decade.
How many? This is really crappy reporting. Unclear and lacking basic information.
Last week, Mr Lewis told the Conservative Party conference that it was “not right that transgender prisoners, when convicted of serious sexual offences or those who have not had reassignment surgery, are housed in the general women’s prison estate”, vowing: “This will end.”
The new justice secretary said there had been sex attacks and inappropriate relationships involving transgender inmates in recent years. He suggested that the use of “specialist cells” could be increased to “further protect women in prison”.
The statement came days after official figures showed that police-recorded hate crimes targeting transgender people had rocketed by 56 per cent in a year.
That’s nice. Quote the justice secretary pointing out that putting men in with women is dangerous to the women, then “balance” that obvious fact with “hate crimes” (which we know from bitter experience can include just skepticism about magic gender) “targeting” trans people.
Galop, an LGBT+ anti-abuse charity, said transphobic narratives in the media and by senior politicians have been allowed to grow without challenge and were translating into “violence against our community”.
The N word. Suddenly it’s a “narrative” that men are more dangerous to women than women are to men.
Suella Braverman, the new home secretary, has focused on trans issues in recent weeks, wading into a Twitter row over the gender identity of a child sex abuser and hitting out at “biologically male police officers strip-searching female suspects”.
“Wading into” and “hitting out at” – very neutral, much impartial.
The former attorney general has been strident in her views at a series of events and interviews, replying when asked what a woman is that “a woman has two X chromosomes, a woman gives birth, a woman does not have a penis”.
Oh oh oh how strident, how shocking, how wicked.
The Indy is embarrassing.
“Several trans women have killed themselves in male prisons in the past decade.”
That is not just crappy reporting – it is an outright lie.
And another thing is – how does the trans suicide rate in prison (along with violence and other things listed) compare with the overall population? Trans are certainly not the only people who kill themselves in prison, so without that statistic, there is nothing really valuable here.
And what is the risk of suicide for women housed with male sex offenders who claim to be women?
The prison suicide rate for billionaire sex traffickers/rapists is pretty high, too.
I have absolutely no trouble believing that prison is a living hell for transwomen housed in a men’s prison; they would, almost certainly, be considered preferred targets for the rapists behind bars, for obvious reason. And,a s such, yeah, I wouldn’t be shocked to discover that suicide rates among that population are an increment of indeterminate size larger than for the general male prison pop.
That still doesn’t mean that women should bear the burden of alleviating that risk. Segregated housing for transwomen would likely work just fine. This is one of those places that Maya’s “Transwomen are transwomen” line shows the most obvious course of action.