WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) announced the release of a California inmate’s humiliating story in the sixth episode of its exclusive docu-series, Cruel & Unusual Punishment: The Male Takeover of Female Prisons. Dana Gray, a current inmate at Central California Women’s Facility, tells IWF her story of facing verbal abuse and sexual harassment after sharing a prison room with a fully intact male inmate.
In 2021, California passed SB 132, known as the Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act – allowing fully intact men to be housed in female-only prisons by simply declaring a non-male gender.
Dana Gray said that the men coming into Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) since the passage of SB 132 are clearly abusing the law put into place by politicians who dismissed the safety and wellbeing of female prisoners to appease the gender ideology movement. Gray said; “Most of them don’t wear makeup. They are straight men, and they’re men in women’s clothing –– so to say.”
Gray said she is “too old to hold back.” Gray, a 66-year-old convicted murderer, is willing to speak up for the population of incarcerated women suffering in silence as a result of SB 132. Many incarcerated women are afraid to speak out on the presence of men in women’s prisons due to fears of retaliation and the potential to impact their ability to get released. Unfortunately, Gray’s story was not an isolated incident, and she emphasizes the harmful impacts of California’s gender self-identification law as it “degrades women so bad” and gives male inmates “more rights” than female inmates.
Click HERE to watch Dana Gray’s story.
IWF’s Storytelling Manager and co-producer of the series, Andrea Mew, said, “As a serial killer, Dana Gray’s heinous crimes should not be taken lightly. But, that does not invalidate her experience being sexually harassed by a male inmate identifying as a transgender woman. No one deserves to be subjected to sexual harassment. If someone with her reputation is now boldly sounding the alarm, then there’s evidently reason for serious concern about the safety of all female inmates.”
Watch Dana Gray’s story here.
BACKGROUND:
As more states allow men who identify as women into women’s prisons, few are aware of the harmful fallout. Women with histories of trauma and domestic abuse are forced to share their most private and intimate spaces with intact males—many of whom are violent, sexual predators serving time for heinous crimes.
Allowing male offenders to reside in women’s prisons is dangerous and unfair. Put simply, it’s cruel and unusual punishment. These stories stand as a testament to why biological sex matters, especially in institutional settings. Incarcerated women need and deserve female-only spaces. Anything less is a violation of their most basic human rights.
The eradication of single-sex prisons is harming female inmates.
In this documentary mini-series, IWF brings voices to light who detail the untold, gruesome story about what’s been happening to female inmates behind closed doors. As more and more prison systems allow males to declare themselves “women” and opt to be housed in facilities meant for females, the voices of those most affected deserve to be heard.
Watch the Cruel & Unusual Punishment: The Male Takeover of Female Prisons trailer HERE. Each episode of this ongoing short documentary series produced by IWF, varying from 5 to 10 minutes in length, will be released individually over the coming weeks, with episodes available to the public for free on YouTube.
Direct media inquiries and booking requests to [email protected].
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Independent Women’s Forum is dedicated to developing and advancing policies that aren’t just well intended, but actually enhance people’s freedom, choices, and opportunities.