The opposition has answered WoLF’s federal appeal of Chandler v. Macomber, a lawsuit challenging a California law (SB 132) that allows men in prison to request women’s housing based solely on self-identification as women or non-binary. After the lawsuit was filed in 2021, a group of trans-identified male inmates represented by the ACLU, the Transgender Law Center, and others) filed a motion to intervene (become parties to the lawsuit) which was later granted by the court.
After a multi-year battle, the court dismissed WoLF’s amended complaint. WoLF appealed this decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Now, answering briefs have been filed both by the Defendants (agents of the state of California and CDCR) and by the Intervenors.
The state characterizes the lawsuit as a “policy disagreement”, and asserts that none of the plaintiffs’ issues would be solved by overturning SB 132 - that none of the harms that women in California prisons have experienced in the past five years are a result of being forced to share prison cells, showers, and other intimate spaces with men.
The intervenors also contend that nothing is amiss, saying that “[p]laintiffs speculate that some unnamed incarcerated persons will attempt to transfer to a women’s prison under SB132 with the intent to commit criminal acts.” They assert that our “theory” “depends on speculation about the future intentions and conduct of third parties”, saying that we offer “no case law or logic” to support these claims.
However, the state and the intervenors are well aware that one of the intervenors, a party in this very case, has impregnated at least one woman, and will soon face trial for forcible rape of two other women. The court granted his request to be a party in this case on the basis of his claim that overturning SB 132 could impact his ability to be housed with women.
Indeed, prior to SB 132, there were no male inmates with penises in California women’s prisons, so it was not possible for incarcerated women there to be impregnated by, nor victims of forcible rape perpetrated by, fellow inmates. This was a change wrought by SB 132.
The defendants and the intervenors agree with us that men as a demographic group pose categorical danger to other men (including those who identify as transgender women) in prison. Yet they insist that the plaintiffs are promoting “stereotypes”, “speculation”, and “theories” by asserting that men (including those who identify as transgender women) also pose a categorical danger to women in prison.
The defendants and the intervenors are wrong. This case is not a procedural dispute, nor a policy disagreement, nor is it a matter of “transgender rights”. It is about the treatment of women in prison, their right to equal protection under the law, and their constitutional rights (and human rights) to be housed in a single-sex prison.
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Read the briefs themselves: