CARSON CITY, Nevada (LifeSiteNews) — Nevada’s liberal Republican governor signed another leftist piece of legislation recently, this time requiring prisons to house male inmates with women on the basis of their declared “gender identity.”
Governor Joe Lombardo signed legislation on May 30 that established the state as a safe haven for abortionists who travel to other states and illegally commit abortions.
He continued his liberal streak by signing on May 31 an ACLU-backed Senate Bill 153 which requires Nevada prisons to “adopt policies on housing inmates with consideration to their gender identity,” according to a local CBS affiliate. Prison guards and other correctional staff must also “[u]se respectful language and currently accepted terminology that accounts for and protects the rights of offenders who are transgender, gender non–conforming, gender non–binary and intersex” and undergo mandatory “[t]raining in cultural competency for interacting with offenders who are transgender, gender non-conforming, gender non-binary and intersex.”
The ACLU of Nevada thanked the liberal Republican governor for helping push its leftist social agenda. The group’s director of communications and campaigns stated in a news release:
Across the country, people who are transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse are under attack. Even here in Nevada, we are seeing extremists trying to score political points by spreading misinformation and hate. As a nonbinary person, I’ve heard countless stories of inequity based on gender identity or expression, and that’s true in our prisons as well. I am glad to see the governor sign these important protections for transgender people into law. All Nevadans, including people who are incarcerated, have a right to access gender-affirming care under the law, and this is a huge step forward for our state.
Lombardo’s own party rebuked the legislation. “While this bill is an obvious attempt to deny reality (you cannot change your gender, no matter what surgery you have), this bill puts other prisoners in danger, and opens the state up for litigation risk on a number of fronts,” Nevada Republican National Commiteewoman Sigal Chattah wrote in an opposition letter on the letterhead of the state party and Chairman Michael McDonald.
Chattah also predicted there would be lawsuits from leftist nonprofits anytime a prisoner’s chosen pronouns are not used.
Chattah wrote:
[We] already have a shortage of prison guards and difficulties recruiting. How much harder will it be to recruit and retain qualified correctional officers when they have to worry about a prisoner suddenly deciding to change their pronouns? How many lawsuits will be filed by deep-pocketed “nonpartisan” 501c3s against hard-working correctional officers who “misgender” a prisoner?
Again, why is there more concern about how an inmate chooses to “identify,” than about the guards who put their lives on the line every day to keep these dangerous felons off of Nevada’s streets?
Self-described Democrat Kerri Roque with Women’s Declaration International also explained how the policy could be a violation of human rights and puts women’s lives at risk.
She wrote:
Allowing men to be housed in a women’s prison places incarcerated women at greatly increased risk of assault. Men commit 85-90% of serious indictable offenses and 98% of sexual offenses. Medicalization to disguise their sex does not decrease these tendencies. As of 12/19/21 in the State of California, of the 287 men seeking transfer to the women’s estate, 33.8% are registered sex offenders, and 25.8% were convicted of a sex offense. People with differences/disorders of sexual development (sometimes inaccurately called “intersex”), are either male or female and should be segregated according to biological sex, because having a male body subjects female prisoners to the threat of rape as well as loss of privacy and dignity.
“Housing men in a women’s prison contravenes international legal principles for humane treatment of imprisoned persons,” Roque wrote. She noted that the United Nation’s rules for the treatment or prisoners says that men and women should be housed in separate facilities.
The correctional system must comply with the law by January 1, 2024.