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Comment by joshuamorton | Hacker News Reader

> Regarding the right to privacy, what's your take on the privacy rights of the (female) women who are being physically forced to house & sleep in a cell with males?

Any argument here about privacy is entirely independent of sex and gender. Prison is dehumanizing, address that. Don't be a transphobe.

Edit: There's a bunch of mistaken comments here assuming that this will protect women prisoners in some capacity. That's totally wrong! Women in prison are sexually assaulted, raped, and even impregnated by men all the time and have been for years. Those men are guards[0]. And this happens at a vastly higher rate per capita and overall than any assault by trans inmates. Anyone here with a legitimate interest in protecting women in prison would be attempting to address that harm, because it is far more dire for numerous reasons.

[0]: https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/the-rape-club-womens-priso...

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Is a woman a transphobe for not wanting to share a jail cell with a person who has a penis? I think most people would consider safeguarding female prisoners from males common sense.

I think you should take a moment to consider the (female) women in this situation. Imagine you're a woman 100% at the mercy of the state, and the state locks you in a cell with a male person. Put yourself in their shoes, and try to extend some empathy to them.

I never made any comment about women in prison. I have empathy to anyone in prison. Like I said, its deeply inhumane.

I think people in prison should be protected from other people in prison if they are dangerous, and I think prisons fail to do that today. I don't accept your presumption that having a penis makes someone inherently more dangerous.

Again: if your goal is to protect women in prison, the best way to do that is to advocate for reform that makes prisons safer for everyone. Not by being transphobic, which you're doing instead.

>"Again: if your goal is to protect women in prison, the best way to do that is to advocate for reform that makes prisons safer for everyone. Not by being transphobic, which you're doing instead. "

Perfect is the enemy of good and while it's hard to disagree with the sentiment of "reform that makes prisons safer for everyone ", we have no idea what that actually entails and that's so much of a monumental task that it's basically a non-starter. I feel like the sentiment here is "this wouldn't be a problem if we changed everything, so why don't we?"

> people in prison should be protected from other people in prison

I strongly agree; if you deprive someone of their liberty, then you take on the responsibility of protecting them - because you've deprived them of the ability to protect themselves.

I'm not aware of any prison regime that takes the safety of prisoners as a key objective. [Edit] Nor do I know of a state that handles the deliberate negligence of prisoner welfare as a criminal offence.

I don't accept your presumption that having a penis makes someone inherently more dangerous

The data really really doesn't support your view. Men are objectively more dangerous.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/251886/murder-offenders-...

https://stoprape.humboldt.edu/statistics

An estimated 91% of victims of rape & sexual assault are female and 9% male. Nearly 99% of perpetrators are male

It is not the possession of a penis that causes men to be more dangerous.

Men share more than the possession of a penis, of course. But saying the possession of a penis doesn't make men more dangerous in the face of male rape is like saying that a pistol doesn't make a man more dangerous.

Clearly trans women can't be put in men's prisons if men are this dangerous.

They are men too, if you peel away the veneer of 'gender identity'.

The data showing 99% of perpetrators are male doesn’t count forcible envelopment as rape. In order to rape a man a woman has to penetrate him in some way for example sticking a finger in his ass.

> Women in prison are sexually assaulted, raped, and even impregnated by men all the time and have been for years. Those men are guards.

Indeed and this is why feminist organizations, and others with an interest in women's rights and safety, push for policies of only employing female prison guards in women's prisons.

It's no stretch to see why they don't want male prisoners to be incarcerated there too, no matter how such males identity.

If the male guards can't be trusted not to sexually abuse women, how can you expect the same from cohabiting males?

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