From today's long decision by Judge Jennifer Thurston (E.D. Cal.) in Chandler v. Macomber:
[S]ix women incarcerated in California women's prisons … challenge a California law [S.B. 132] that dictates how prison officials and staff must address and house inmates who identify as transgender, nonbinary, or intersex. The plaintiffs allege that this law has forced … California prison officials … to transfer dangerous and violent people from men's prisons into women's prisons, simply because those people say (sometimes untruthfully) that they are transgender, nonbinary, or intersex. The plaintiffs also object more generally that they will be forced to share intimate spaces with transgender, nonbinary, and intersex inmates.
{Krystal Gonzalez alleges she was sexually assaulted by a person she describes as "a trans-identifying biological male inmate" who transferred into her housing unit, although she does not say exactly when. She reported the assault, but "staff failed to pursue her report," ignored the grievance she filed, and accused her of wrongdoing, i.e., of "willful misgendering" the inmate who assaulted her. In her experience, transgender inmates "rush to engage in sexual relationships with female inmates" when they arrive in the women's prison and sometimes put on a "feminine" affect in the presence of prison guards, only to revert to "masculine habits" when guards are away.
Janine Chandler alleges she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of domestic and sexual abuse she experienced at the hands of her former husband and other relatives. She alleges "the presence of criminal, intimidating males gives her flashbacks of her violent husband." She is Muslim, and her faith "instructs her not to be unclothed with unrelated males," but as a result of S.B. 132, she alleges that she might now be required to undress in the presence of people who she considers to be men.
Tomiekia Johnson also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of sexual assault and domestic violence in her past. She alleges the presence of transgender inmates exacerbates her condition. Less directly, she alleges she has witnessed or heard about sexual harassment and an attempted rape by an transferred inmate, who she describes as a "large man who dresses and grooms masculinely and is not interested in making any effort to present as a woman." Johnson was not the victim, but she alleges the prison did not reprimand or move the perpetrator away from the alleged victims; instead prison officials placed Johnson and the other accusers in solitary confinement and have accused them of making false reports, including in connection with this very lawsuit. Johnson also alleges that she is eligible for resentencing and a commutation but has been denied parole "for political reasons."
