A statement from Lauren Adams, WoLF Legal Director:

Earlier this week, Steven Crowder, a popular conservative Youtuber, announced that his account has been suspended for one week and recent content removed due to violations of the platform’s “hate speech” policy. The video in question was a segment with Alex Jones, released on September 30, which criticized and mocked policies allowing men to be housed in women’s prisons based on their claimed “gender identity.” 

The video cited the groundbreaking legal advocacy work and reporting by the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) which first revealed the devastating conditions and instances of violence that have taken place inside California’s women’s prisons after the passage of SB 132. Since then, WoLF has been smeared in national liberal media as “anti-trans” and “transphobic,” and our work called “fake” and “misinformation.” 

But while CDCR continues to publicly deny allegations of abuse and misconduct inside the prison system since the transfers started, WoLF has been partnering with organizations on the ground representing incarcerated women since the beginning of our investigation into California’s prisons.

Together, WoLF and Woman II Woman have spoken to over 100 women currently in California’s two largest women’s prisons. In heartbreaking letters and phone calls, these women have recounted the fear and pain of being housed with men. 

Amie Ichikawa, a formerly incarcerated woman and founder of Woman II Woman, said:

“I speak to women incarcerated in California's prisons daily. The public needs to understand that SB132 allows males to self-identify as whatever they want and transfer to a women's prison even as they remain fully intact. These men pose a genuine threat, and the women I work with inside CCWF and CIW right now are terrified and traumatized. To label everything these women are saying as fake news and misinformation is in itself extremely hateful. This response is exactly why women, especially women of color, are so reluctant to ask for help when something happens to them in prison. This is why the statistics do not reflect reality.”

Crowder’s video was a satirical take on a very real crisis facing the most powerless women in our society. By censoring this content, Youtube has made clear that it considers “offensive” material a greater threat to public safety than the actual violence against California’s incarcerated women. These women don’t have a platform, other than the ones given them by media figures like Crowder.

The truth is this: men who have transferred into women’s prisons have assaulted female inmates. They have violently beat women. They have sexually harassed them. They have sexually assaulted them. They have wreaked havoc so great that even the female guards are scared to be alone in the same room with these men. And there are hundreds of men still waiting for their transfer applications to be processed. No matter how much Youtube wishes to deny reality, men do pose a rape threat to women ⁠— regardless of their  proclaimed “gender identity.” 

Women’s Liberation Front stands firmly against corporate censorship, especially on platforms that increasingly act as the public sphere. When corporations like Youtube, Google, Twitter, and Facebook ⁠— corporations born and steeped in service to men’s interests ⁠— become the arbiter of truth and decency, women will suffer. Free speech is a feminist issue.

We are committed to continuing our fight to protect women’s rights on all fronts, including restoring single-sex spaces and services and defending free speech. 

- Lauren Adams, WoLF Legal Director

Learn More about SB 132: