Amid rising contention over gender identity and women’s rights, a glaring example of progressive policy failures has emerged. Recently, Senator Ted Cruz interrogated U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn during a nomination hearing about her decision to transfer William McClain—a convicted child rapist who identifies as female—to a federal women’s prison. Judge Netburn affirmed that McClain still possesses male genitalia, serving as a stark reminder of the radical policies that prioritize gender identity over biological reality.
This revelation should surprise no one. For years, Democratic officials have allowed biological men, some with records of sexual and violent crimes, to be housed in women’s prisons based solely on their self-identified “gender identity.” Despite the seriousness of this issue, the legacy media has largely ignored it, leading to widespread ignorance and shock when stories like McClain’s come to light.
It’s crucial to understand that these policies do not universally require medical or surgical changes for biological men to be placed in women’s facilities. States like California, New Jersey, and Washington state have laws enabling men to identify as women without undergoing any physical transformation. This approach, hailed by progressives as a triumph of inclusion, obscures the real and present danger posed to vulnerable women in these facilities.
Unlike Senator Cruz, I am not a Republican. As the president of the U.S. chapter of Women’s Declaration International, an organization rooted in leftist, radical feminist values, I can attest that there are countless leftist women globally who vehemently oppose these policies. Programs that transition male inmates to women’s prisons are contemptible assaults on women’s safety and dignity. It is telling that groups like Women’s Liberation Front have been fighting these injustices, suing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for policies that infringe on women’s constitutional rights.
One harrowing case involves Tomiekia Johnson, an inmate in California who was forced to tolerate a male inmate’s inappropriate behavior in their shared cell. Such incidents highlight the failure of Democratic policies that endanger women by placing them in close quarters with men, regardless of their criminal history.
The problem extends beyond prisons. In California, a man was allowed into the women’s nude section of Wi Spa, displaying an erection, and defended by state law. A similar event occurred in Washington state, where a man was permitted access to the nude female section of Olympus Spa, prompting a legal challenge that has yet to be fully resolved.
Women’s Declaration International filed an amicus brief in this case, arguing that forcing women’s spaces to admit men based on gender identity constitutes sex discrimination. Our brief emphasized that terminologies such as “transgender” obscure the material reality of sex, undermining laws against voyeurism and indecent exposure.
I commend Senator Ted Cruz for bringing this issue to the forefront. The broader public needs to be aware of the Left’s encroachment on women’s rights under the guise of inclusion. The Democratic leadership has consistently betrayed women and girls, prioritizing the rights of men to infringe upon female-only spaces. This betrayal is not just ideological but has practical, dangerous consequences, as evidenced by McClain’s case.
The ongoing struggle to protect women’s rights from such radical interference is far from over. It’s imperative that policymakers and the public recognize the tangible harms resulting from these misguided gender identity policies. The focus should be on safeguarding women’s safety and dignity rather than capitulating to a politically correct but hazardous narrative. When even left-leaning figures like myself are forced to acknowledge the failures of our party, it is a clear sign that it is time to rethink and rectify these policies before more women are unsafely compromised by the very systems meant to protect them.
