“Gender Identity” laws are forcing incarcerated women across the country to be housed with dangerous and violent men

Who is Chris Chan?

Christine (ne Christian) Weston Chandler, known online by “Chris Chan,”  is a 39-year-old man who rose to internet fame in the late 2000s as a Youtuber and as the creator of the Sonichu webcomic. Chandler, who rose to fame for his cringe-inducing videos, now describes himself as a “lesbian transwoman” and “... the goddess of the Nations of Cwcville, Comma, and the Commodore Consoles, and the Creator of Sonichu and Rosechu." Over the years, his webcomics have included many disturbing themes and images drawn in childish fashion such as graphic sexual content and violence, including the execution of his “enemies” (who range from internet trolls to administrators of his former community college).

Chandler’s online presence often included signs of mental illness and disturbing and provocative sexual behavior. His obsession with finding a girlfriend resulted in widespread harassment and trolling, including on the forum KiwiFarms.  Prior to this year,  Chandler, who lives at home with his elderly mother, had already been arrested twice for violent criminal behavior. In 2014, he was arrested for macing a game store employee, after the employee banned him from the store for “rude and inappropriate behavior, such as yelling and swearing at children.” He was given a suspended sentence.  In 2015, he was arrested with his mother for hitting a local game store manager with their vehicle, leading to a fine and a year of community service.

2021 Incest Allegations

On July 30th, 2021, the audio of a taped phone call was leaked online of Chris allegedly confessing to regularly raping his 79-year-old, mother, who suffers from dementia and was frequently featured in his web comic. Chandler was arrested in Richmond by local police the following Sunday. The police stated that Chris Chandler is being held in jail without bail, and charged with one count of incest (which could carry a sentence of up to twelve years) after the sheriff’s office “received information involving sex crimes against a family member.” The office noted that the investigation was ongoing, and that additional charges were pending.

Because Chris Chan identifies as a woman and has updated his documents to falsely label him as “female,” speculation has occurred that if Chandler were to be found guilty, he could potentially be housed in a women’s prison where the predator would gain access to vulnerable women to sexually terrorize. However, according to reporting by Insider, as of August 5 Chandler is being held in the Central Virginia Regional Jail where he was correctly categorized as male.

Gender ID Laws in Prisons

Recently, several states have begun to make radical and unethical changes to their prison housing policies to allow men into women’s prisons, despite the inherent danger in housing sometimes abusive and violent men with isolated, vulnerable women.

For example, New Jersey adopted a new policy requiring state prisons to house men according to their self-declared “gender identity” rather than their sex. Their policy recognizes “self-attestations,” meaning that men do not have to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria, have surgery to remove their penis, or take cross-sex hormones to be transferred to a women’s prison, even if they have histories of gang violence, pedophilia, or have sexually abused or raped women. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and California all have similar policies.

This trainwreck of a system provides a perfect environment for misconduct, but these states refuse to recognize the harms of their policies; even stating that men who say they identify as women “will never be considered a management or security problem...” despite the abuse and violence toward women that has resulted from such transfers, including the rape of women in prison showers in Washington and Pennsylvania, or a case in California, where another man — convicted of rape and torture — was transferred to a women’s facility and has allegedly raped women with objects. Reports earlier this month from women incarcerated with men in California indicated that women have already become pregnant as a result of these policies.

Virginia’s Prison Gender-ID Laws

For now, the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDC) only allows “... offenders who have had completed sex reassignment surgery “to be placed in a facility for inmates of his or her gender” but the state still requires the VDC to provide elective, cosmetic surgeries to alter the appearance of sex characteristics  to inmates who “live in a role congruent with their gender identity for 12 months.” But anti-women advocates like Chase Strangio, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project, insist that Washington and California’s failed policies should be spread across the nation, because “... prison health care is not what it should be for… transgender inmates” and to protect the “dignity” of men who identify as women.

But even Virginia’s current policy puts vulnerable women at risk. There is no evidence that “identifying” as a woman makes a man less likely to commit violent crimes than the general male population, even when men take chemical steroids to adjust their physiology or reduce their testosterone. Swedish longitudinal studies, for example, found that men retain “male level of criminality” even after hormones and surgery.

There are, in fact, already a few men in Virginia’s women’s prisons: born Anthony Norman Dunlop, “Toni Nanette Hartlove” is a man who has undergone elective sex-mutiliation surgery and is serving a life sentence for First Degree Homicide for brutally murdering his husband. Dunlop is currently housed in a Virginia women’s prison, despite the fact that his probation plea was rejected because his “record of institutional infractions indicates a disregard for rules and that [he] is not ready to conform to society” and that he “needs to show a longer period of stability.” Nonetheless, he is apparently considered safe and stable enough to house with vulnerable incarcerated women in Virginia, 80 percent of whom are victims of sexual violence or abuse, themselves.

As it stands, it appears unlikely that Chris Chan would be housed in a Virginia women’s prison unless he elected to receive cosmetic surgery. However, if the Equality Act passes the Senate (where it currently awaits a vote), policies like those currently active in California would go into effect across the country. In this case, Chris Chan would be able to request transfer to Virginia’s women’s  prisons without any further medical requirements.

Take Action!

Sign the Petition: Get Men Out of Women’s Prisons!

WoLF is demanding an end to the inhumane practice of forcing incarcerated women to be housed with men. If you don’t think predators like Chris Chan should be allowed to identify into single-sex spaces with vulnerable women, sign our petition to overturn California’s SB 132!

Write your Senators: Vote NO on the Equality Act!

While the Equality Act is being sold on promising good things for women, and on ending unfair treatment of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people—which almost everyone agrees are worthy and important goals—it’s poisoned with the destruction of the law’s ability to allow any accommodations for women on the basis of sex, including the end of single-sex prisons. 

The summary of the bill states, “The bill prohibits an individual from being denied access to a shared facility, including a restroom, a locker room, and a dressing room, that is in accordance with the individual's gender identity.” This means that American women will no longer be able to expect any single-sex facilities when using or being required to stay in:

• Shared hospital rooms or wards

• Locker rooms and public or group showers

• Multi-stall bathrooms

• Jails, prisons, or juvenile detention facilities

• Homeless shelters, domestic violence, or rape crisis shelters 

• This bill will also end sports programs and scholarships set aside for women and girls.