Sovereign Women Speak works to help our most vulnerable sisters—incarcerated women—retain, or in some cases, regain the right to be housed exclusively with fellow females. We advocate against the growing trend of prisons transferring males who identify as women into women’s prisons. Most of these men have committed sexual crimes against women and the vast majority retain their male genitalia. There is evidence that among the transferees a significant percentage self-identify as women for the sole purpose of being housed in women’s prisons, where the conditions are generally better and where they have access to females.

For incarcerated women, the majority of whom have been victims of sexual violence before their prison terms, the situation is akin to psychological torture. The harm is not only psychological; SWS is tracking the growing number of sexual and physical assaults and incidents of harassment committed by males identifying as women against female inmates. We are working to educate lawmakers and the general public about this injustice to the women, their families, and loved ones. We have taken direct action at the women’s prison (WCCW) in Purdy, WA many times to raise awareness of this issue. We testified against HB 1956, however the democrats ruled to keep from the public the men they are housing inside WCCW.