California to house transgender inmates based on gender preferences

California Governor Gavin Newsom, on September 27, signed a law asking the state to house transgender inmates based on their gender identity but only if the state does not have any “management or security concerns”. In addition to housing, the new law also requires prison officials to address transgender with the pronoun of their choice.

Experts say this could be 'dangerous'

As per the current law, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation houses both men and woman in different facilities and the transgenders are housed as per the gender they are assigned at birth. However, experts have reckoned that this could prove dangerous for people assigned to wrong gender facilities, especially women in men's facilities.

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As per the law, all the inmates should be asked, in private, if they are transgender, non-binary, or intersex. If the prisoner accepts to be one of these, they could request to be put in facilities that house either men or women. The law also states that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation cannot deny requests solely because of inmates’ anatomy, sexual orientation, or “a factor present” among other inmates at the facility.

However, the state can choose to deny the requests if it has a “management or security concern”. In that case, the state is obliged to give the inmate a written statement explaining the decision and a “meaningful opportunity” to object. Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco who authored the bill, said he doesn't expect that exception to be used very often.

“It's just a false narrative about transgender people and about transgender women in particular that they're somehow not really women and are just trying to scam their way into women's bathrooms or facilities in order to do bad things. Overwhelmingly the people who are being victimized are trans people," Weiner told the Associated Press. 

(Image credit: AP)

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