Not his problem
Jolyon Maugham QC, who will never find himself in the situation of a woman locked up with a predatory man who claims to be a woman, weighs in with his QC opinion on the subject.
There’s a need for great care when arguing for the need to protect ‘safe spaces’. To contend ‘X, member of group, is a criminal and so you should fear all in that group’ is to adopt a trope favoured by bigots down the ages. 1/3
He was commenting on a tweet by Jean Hatchet:
Yes. This has happened and the rapist was called *Karen* White. Now returned to male prison. If we raise this we are called transphobic. But we will raise it. Stand with feminist women against these attacks on your rights. Go to a @Womans_Place_UK meeting. Find out. Push back.
The Equality Act (and the very provision Jean cites) talks of “proportionate” measures to achieve “legitimate” aims. This languages recognises the need carefully to balance conflicting rights and dignities. Trans men and women, like cis men and women are entitled to respect. 2/3
How real is the risk? What is necessary to safeguard against it? How might these safeguards be operated to protect the rights and dignities of all? These questions are more likely to generate policy responses that achieve that balance than broad assertion. 3/3
It’s not a risk he will ever face, and that could be why he finds it so easy to dismiss, minimize, shrug off.
I would say that’s easy. Prior to any incidents, it was one thing to ask this question philosophically and academically. Now we have an instance, and that changes the status of the question.
The thing is, there probably are very few trans women in prison (even at a fairly high percentage of them in prison, it would be a small actual number). The fact that this has already arisen in a prison population that is doubtless very small compared to both the prison population and the trans population as a whole is reason for concern.
When balancing rights, we do need to recognize which is the most vulnerable group, as trans activists are fond of proclaiming. The thing is, the most vulnerable group is that which is weaker and less able to protect themselves against the other group. That group is not trans women.
Well, one small step might be finding a way to distinguish between someone who is really transgender, and someone who either only thinks they’re transgender, or is really good at pretending to be transgender.
I volunteer Jolyon Maugham QC to head the committee!
I wonder how “trans men” sentenced to prison feel about being incarcerated in a male-only facility?
Lucky she made no such contention then. In fact that case has pretty much the opposite contention: males who have been convicted of sexual assault against women are criminals of a sort that women in particular have reason to fear’.
Through the veil of Times confidentiality…IS this report about ‘Karen White?’ Or do we have another trans-rapist working the system?
John the Drunkard: It’s not Karen White, it’s *another* one.
[apologies for not being able to state publicly how I know this. If Ophelia wishes to message me privately, I can verify]
Not just Karen White.
https://www.womenarehuman.com/violent-male-offenders-are-being-transferred-to-womens-prisons-in-canada/
I recall reading that men in prison are far more likely to identify as transgender than are men in the general population.
Sackbut, that makes sense. Even for men not seeking new victims, it gets them out of a prison where they might encounter people stronger than they are into a prison where the population is less likely to commit violence against them – or at least this is likely the assumption. I understand some woman prisoners are more than capable of taking care of themselves and destroying those who get in their way.
The real answer is to fix the prisons. Keep men and women separate, because it seems unlikely that reform will ever make the problem disappear (unless we reform society, as well, get rid of rape culture, and stop raising kids with some perverse image of masculinity and femininity). Establish a separate “trans” block if you need to, but do not put male-bodied people with women (which, I guess, would mean two “trans” blocks – one for MtF, and one for FtM).
Too many people don’t care. They think if a person is in prison they deserve anything they get. They assume they must be guilty, no matter how many scandals there are about pushing innocent people into prison to close a case. They assume that the guilty do not deserve any consideration from decent human beings like themselves. They forget how many petty little laws they themselves have broken (speed limit, anyone?) and believe they are law abiding, pure as the driven snow. Even if they see their petty misdemeanors (or felonies?) that they get away with, they assume those in prison are guilty of much worse offenses, or they wouldn’t be in prison. So prison reform is an unpopular topic, because it smacks of “coddling criminals”. I know. I heard all that from my family as I was growing up, every time anyone tried to improve the disgraceful state of the prisons.