It is one mark of our crazy times that whenever somebody points to a logical outcome of one of our more radical ideologies—say, the idea of biological men being sent to female prisons because they claim to be women—they are angrily ridiculed and often accused of being transphobic. Two things are apparently true simultaneously: People lie, but people claiming to be transgender never lie.
Those even asking such questions, say the progressive activists, are simply inventing outlandish scenarios in order to stoke bigotry and prevent vulnerable people from receiving the special rights that they deserve. And then, when these outlandish scenarios invariably unfold—often a very short amount of time after the concerned observer pointed out that they might happen—those same activists pretend that there is nothing at all wrong with such things to begin with. Shut up, they explain.
Thus, just a few days after the BBC reported that a “transgender woman” (read: biological male) was convicted of sexually assaulting several female prisoners that were locked in with him, The Timeshas this to report out of Scotland:
Women are being put in danger because Scottish prison chiefs allow male-bodied transgender inmates to live in female-only areas of jails, campaigners have warned. Under the present regime, prisoners born male but identifying as female can be placed in women-only parts of the prison estate, even if they have not legally changed gender or undergone any reassignment surgery.
The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) is facing calls to review its rules after a case in England in which Karen White, who was born male but now identifies as female, admitted to sexually assaulting four inmates in a women’s jail. The former drag artist had a long record of sexual and violent offences against women.
In Scotland this year two transgender murderers had to be split up after they formed a relationship in Greenock prison that unsettled other prisoners. Insiders told the Daily Record that they suspected the pair were faking their gender identities to get a “cushier time in prison”.
In 2013 Paris Green, a murderer previously known as Peter Laing, was moved from a female jail because she “kept having sex with female inmates”, it was reported. While risk assessments are carried out before any move, the policy states that a “male-to-female person in custody living permanently as a woman without genital surgery should be allocated to a female establishment”.
It adds: “She should not be automatically regarded as posing a high sexual offence risk to other people in custody and should not be subject to any automatic restrictions of her association with other people in custody.” The Times understands that there are 18 trans prisoners in Scottish jails at present, some but not all of whom are living in jails corresponding to their self-declared gender identity, rather than the sex they were born as.
Under the transgender policies female prison officers are expected to carry out intimate searches of male-bodied trans women if inmates request such treatment. Any concerns by female staff should be addressed though “additional staff training”, the policy states.
The guidelines, which were revised in 2014, say trans inmates are entitled to special items, such as make-up, wigs or prosthetics, to help them live in their preferred gender and are more likely to be assigned their own cell, instead of having to share. An equality impact assessment related to the policy reveals that trans prisoners and members of the public, as well as two trans rights lobby groups, were consulted about the new guidelines, although no women’s groups were…
The Scottish Trans Alliance did not respond to a request for comment last night. However, the organisation has previously defended the SPS policy.
Karen White, the rapist who was sent to a women’s prison upon request, has already been “outed” by other prisoners as a “faker”—something that trans organizations insisted would never happen and even labeled a “transphobic” accusation, despite the fact that it is only common sense that some criminals would take advantage of these new ideological stupidities to gain access to vulnerable populations. Women’s groups have been raising the alarm about these policies for some time, but have discovered that on the progressive totem pole, feminists have been downgraded as of late, while trans activists are almost revered as the pinnacle of victimhood.
The feminists are out, and the trans activists are in. It will be interesting to discover how the practicalities of real life clash with the ideological pretenses of a movement that has proven, over and over again, to be based on delusion and confusion.
___________________________________________
For anyone interested, my book on The Culture War, which analyzes the journey our culture has taken from the way it was to the way it is and examines the Sexual Revolution, hook-up culture, the rise of the porn plague, abortion, commodity culture, euthanasia, and the gay rights movement, is available for sale here.
