While executive orders get signed to protect women’s sports and preserve fairness for female athletes, society pays far less attention to another group of women who also deserve protection: female prisoners. Unlike athletes or students, incarcerated women cannot simply walk away from uncomfortable or dangerous situations.

The Women Nobody Wants To Talk About

Every few months, another story emerges about biological men being housed in women’s prisons. State governments mostly handle prisons, so these stories rarely break through nationally. Or maybe once society labels women as inmates, people stop caring quite so much about their privacy, dignity, and safety.

Recently, Reduxx reported on a male serving a 35-year sentence, including for the brutal murder of his girlfriend suddenly decides he’s a woman.

A trans-identified male serving a 35-year sentence for charges including the brutal 2014 murder of his girlfriend has been relocated to a women’s prison and awarded a payout of $295,000. Zera Lola Zombie, born Daniel Lee Smith, was granted $95,000 with an additional $200,000 for attorney fees as a result of a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging the Oregon Department of Corrections had violated his rights by housing him in a men’s prison. – Reduxx

How Far Is Society Supposed To Take This?

Shocking, right? But it’s not just Oregon. A recent article published by The Hill detailed multiple violent male offenders being housed inside Massachusetts women’s prisons as well, including inmates convicted of rape, murder, child assault, and violence against women.

It is one of those articles that becomes more disturbing the further you read, because at some point you stop asking how this happened and start wondering why female inmates are being forced into these situations.

Female inmates describe being harassed and abused by these men but fear institutional reprisal if they report it. Most women I interviewed said prison officials routinely minimize sexual-assault allegations against trans-identified inmates, while female accusers are dismissed, discredited, or punished. Some alleged victims gave me detailed written statements supporting their accounts.

One woman incarcerated at MCI-Framingham told me she was raped by a male prisoner in November, and that authorities responded to her complaint by placing her in restrictive housing. She is now confined to a locked cell and permitted to leave only once per day, briefly, to shower. – The Hill

These men who pretend to be women now are not kept separate from the female inmates, from what I’ve gathered. They have full access.

Some are going to argue, well, it’s just a few. Um no. And even if it were just a few, it’s too many. Men should not be in women’s prisons; I don’t even care if they’ve had the full surgery. No.

In the women’s prison in Shakopee Minnesota, they allow biological males who identify as women to be inmates.

2 of those inmates are incarcerated for sexual assault.

How is this being allowed? pic.twitter.com/k9z96pIP8l

— The Disrespected Trucker (@DisrespectedThe) May 6, 2026

Good question, Disrespected Trucker, how is this being allowed? Well, you can thank Joe Biden for the beginning of all of this insanity.

Lawsuits

Now, we have a lawsuit out of Washington state raising similar concerns after female inmates alleged harassment, intimidation, and assault involving biological male prisoners housed inside their facilities.

The Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) gives violent male convicts who self-identify as transgender full access to women’s prisons, including cells, bathrooms, and showers. The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) argues these actions are discriminatory and unsafe. By forcing women to share a prison with violent men, Washington DOC is violating the fundamental constitutional rights of women to be safe while incarcerated, according to a lawsuit filed on April 27.

[…]

The housing of these male inmates with females — including as bunkmates in the same cell — has led to multiple instances of violence and sexual abuse against the female inmates, persistent harassment, and the routine intimidation of female inmates in violation of their fundamental constitutional rights to serve their sentences in safety and without further punishment,” states the lawsuit. – Daily Wire

What also gets ignored in these conversations is that many incarcerated women already come from backgrounds involving abuse, addiction, trafficking, domestic violence, and sexual assault. A lot of them have already spent years dealing with dangerous men.

Just because they are in prison doesn’t mean they get to be preyed upon.

Suddenly Biology Matters Again

Then I came across a six-month-old interview with Mike Rowe and former inmate Amy Ichikawa, and within the first few minutes, she mentions California installing condom dispensers inside women’s prisons after male inmates started transferring in under gender identity policies.

I’m sorry, what?

Because I thought we were all supposed to pretend these were women now. So why exactly are condom dispensers suddenly needed inside female prisons?

Society needs to decide whether women’s boundaries actually mean something or whether they only matter when it’s convenient and easy and politically safe to care about them. Women trapped in these situations are not wealthy activists or celebrities.

Yes, these women committed crimes. That is why they are in prison. But prison itself is supposed to be the punishment, not being forced to sleep, shower, and live beside violent men while society lectures them about compassion.

How Far Will This Go?

And prisons may only be the beginning of where this conversation eventually goes. Because if society now expects women behind bars to suppress every instinct they have about privacy and physical safety, what happens years from now inside assisted living facilities and nursing homes? What happens when elderly women with dementia or medical vulnerabilities are expected to simply accept biological men identifying as women providing intimate personal care to them?

People can call those concerns uncomfortable if they want. But they are real questions, and ordinary people are going to keep asking them no matter how many activists insist otherwise.

Feature Image: original graphic by Darleen Click