Locked Up with the Wrong Gender
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Summary
Amy Ichikawa is a formerly incarcerated woman herself, and now she spends her time advocating for women in women's prisons and facilities and advocating for resources for them. She's based out of California, but she spends a lot of her time in a state where men selfidentify as women and getting into women s prisons and how this affects women.
Transcript
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welcome back to the gains for girls podcast thank you for joining us i am super excited
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about today's guest i know that i say that about every guest but today's guest is sharing
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a new perspective adding a new perspective one that i imagine most of you haven't really
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considered uh we have talked about this gender ideology movement and how it affects of course
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female athletes we just had a lawyer and an ncaa official on we've had parents we've had coaches
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we've had the sorority girls from university of wyoming the list goes on but i imagine you haven't
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considered how this issue impacts prisoners and those women who are incarcerated in all women's
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facilities today's guest her name is amy ichikawa she is a formerly incarcerated woman herself and
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now she spends her time advocating for women in these institutions and facilities and advocating
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for resources for them a big issue that she has faced over the past few years she's based out of
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california if that tells you anything is men self-identifying as women and getting into women's
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prisons and how this affects women i actually got to meet amy in new mexico a few weeks ago
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uh we were there advocating for a new piece of legislation called the women's bill of rights
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which ultimately defines and codifies the word woman and other sex-based terms i can't even believe
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that this is necessary we have to define the word woman and and state statute really federal statute but
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here we are in 2024 it is necessary that we do so um but look this bill the women's bill of rights
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it's a lot broader than just protecting women's sports anywhere where the word woman is used in
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state statute it would define this word so it prevents unelected bureaucrats and officials from
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going through the back door and reinterpreting this word to mean what they want it to mean
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which is what we're certainly seeing happening and in new mexico for example the word woman or female
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is used 2045 times in state statute meaning again 2045 times uh for this word to be
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reinterpreted to mean what whoever wants it to mean uh which we're seeing the effects of that now
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um so very excited to talk with amy check out our interview here well amy thank you so much for
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joining the gains for girls podcast it is nice to see you again uh we just got back from spending
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some time together in new mexico which was incredible um and to just be able to hear some of the stories
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stories you were able to tell me gosh i learned so much and so i'm super excited to talk to you today
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um i wanted you to just start by telling us a little bit about you and your background
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okay well thank you very much for having me um i am formerly incarcerated i served five years in a
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california state prison i started a small organization a few years after getting out and i've pretty much
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dedicated my life to um making sure that women in prison have the ability to rehabilitate in a space
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that is conducive for rehabilitation which would be a space that's free of men um and that's that's
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what we have in common um yeah it's it's really consumed it's just everything now it is
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everything well talk about um outside of of kind of the gender id uh the self-identification mess
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what are some of the the things that women specifically in prison face that are different
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to that of of males in in men's facilities the issues for women in in women prison stem
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from the lack of dignity the absolute disrespect the disregard for you as a woman uh it starts from
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the time you walk in to the time you leave and even after that uh there are so many issues with
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sexual misconduct uh the whole internalized misogyny of the system in general you're robbed of your
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uh womanhood and femininity when you walk into the place um and we're just held to a different level
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of accountability than men as well women are stigmatized very heavily uh because we're not
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supposed to be nobody's supposed to be a criminal but you know technically i think uh women are held
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to a much much higher standard uh you're permanently uh looked down upon and i i i'm trying to work
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through it myself uh we have a tendency to beat ourselves up and it just hinders the whole rehabilitation
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process so on top of all that uh just being a woman having to ask for you know pads or tampons these
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are the kind of things that you don't think about on a daily basis but when you're in prison it does
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impact you uh all the time you you had already alluded to the fact that men now are self-identifying
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as women and they're getting into women's prisons you you do work across the nation but you spend a lot
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of your time you're based in california um so you have seen as as you can imagine right um in a state
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like california you have seen some of the craziest things um but i i guess i kind of wanted to ask you
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outside of the obvious one of being housed with women which sounds awesome to a rapist or a sexual
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predator or someone who's been charged with child pornography or kidnapping or any of these sexual
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crimes what are the benefits to a man self-identifying as a woman and getting into women's prisons
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uh safety um definitely safety is issue number one uh a large percentage of the people who are
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transferring are uh individual to the state has a hard time keeping safe because of their status that's
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not trans-related uh status with um the gang uh being informant um just very problematic individuals
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so they're coming from these level four men's prisons their maximum security and entering women's
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general population which is uh completely not segregated women are all integrated together
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security levels one through four there's serial killers and uh you know um petty thieves all living
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together and it's never been a problem until now when somebody who of the top security level is being
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taken off of death row or uh super max men's prison and put into women's facilities in general population
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it's like a kid in a candy store and this women the women's prison is like an unshucked oyster it's
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just waiting to be discovered because there's so many opportunities for extortion for uh it's a gold
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mine it's a gold mine for them that's why all these lawsuits are uh spinning and being created as we
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speak uh there's a lot of money to be made in in these situations and these opportunists are going to
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take advantage of this opportunity as expected yeah i like that you use the word opportunists
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because i think that's a lot of what this movement is and look that's not me trying to water down
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someone who who genuinely has gender dysphoria uh whatever that might look like um but there are
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opportunists and that is what the system the systems that we have in place uh we're allowing
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ourselves to be taken advantage of because of the opportunists so i i appreciate you using that word
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um what does this mean that the women in these all women's facilities across the nation what does that
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mean that they have to now endure because of these men into their facilities well it in a
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like housing perspective um you're now completely void of any privacy or dignity you didn't have any
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too much before but it's different when you're in a cell like in the world's largest women's prison
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it's an eight-person cell so now you're getting ready for work you're changing you're showering you're
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using the toilet with someone who possibly has a is a sex offender this is somebody who um is going to
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be around you in the most intimate times of the day uh you're now like their comfort animal um
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these people also have the ability to have you moved out of the cell at any given time because their
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own perception of their mental health safety and well-being has to be taken into consideration
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whenever any decisions are made uh in regards to their uh housing assignment job assignment
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anything like that and these aren't rights that were taken away from a community and are being
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redistributed this is stuff that nobody in prison has ever had this is uh violating laws that are
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already on the book no inmate can have power over another inmate but these people now have the ability to just
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bust up an entire room displace seven other women because you you want to possibly have single
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self status all of this is stuff these women have to worry about every day now it takes years to cultivate
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a group of eight women who can live together and uh thrive and succeed it takes a lot uh and knowing that at any
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given moment somebody could just say i want that room and i want them all out uh is
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it's it's got people on the edge of their seats just hyper vigilant uh there's no respite from this
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just super bowl sunday they had to watch as while they're on lockdown because there's no staff there
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the plant operation staff came in to install condom and dental down to set
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uh because it was really important apparently all women's facilities now everyone should be
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asking themselves why do they need men's condoms in an all women's facility and if you if you think
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about this and lay this out for exactly what it is not only because you're not supposed to have
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have sex in prison i mean that's that's a standard right i mean right it and it is they got
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a memo that states you know sexual relations and sexual activity is still prohibited under any
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circumstances but we're still going to provide this it's always for many years they've been
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provided in the men's prisons because there's different you know activities and lifestyles that
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are taking place in there there was they're trying to slow down the transmission of stis so it
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has never been an issue in women's prisons but since they're introducing this factor into their
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population it is going to be a problem and i think they introduced the dental downs at the same time to
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kind of offset the shock factor that this this these are freaking condoms not only are they just
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allowing intercourse by providing condoms it is as if they are encouraging intercourse and what i would
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imagine in many cases encouraging rape because again these are are men who are convicted of sexual
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assault crimes do you have any stats like obviously i think it's pretty well known women on average right
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the percentage of of those who commit sexual battery or sexual crimes of course it's much higher for
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that of men what is that do you have that any kind of stat that would relay that it's like this and
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but technically um even within the the men's statistics i think their sex offender rate is 17
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percent for general population and for the transfers just the transfer requesting people to women's prison
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it's 33.8 percent so this is a really undeniably a large concentration of um sex offenders that is
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trying to gain access to the women's prison of whom 92 percent are battered and beaten women
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um it is rare to have female sex offenders they do exist but the way the law was written
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if anyone in the prison of uh the selected gender has ever had any convictions that are related to
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a transverse conviction then it it clears the way so one sex offender female it it opens this whole door
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up to um serial rapists you know uh people with the most heinous sex crimes
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again just to reiterate these these staff members worked overtime on super bowl sunday when everyone is
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distracted right there's no media attention going on here everyone's focused on the super bowl
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they worked overtime to come into all women's facilities and install condoms and dental dams
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i was reading about a prison in new york uh again all women's facility that has posted placards talking
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about pregnancy prevention uh what are the numbers again being in california um what are the numbers look
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like like how many men are transferring to women's prisons and i think almost more importantly how many
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women who self-identify as a male apply to get into men's prisons uh i believe the cdcr website said that
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about maybe 11 uh trans men have tried to transfer but i know that there's only been one who has been
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allowed to transfer and they had maybe three months left to do and they were sent to a men's prison
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there were no complaints i think the conduct of the people that are in the men's prison is a little bit
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different than the people who are transferring over
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the dangers are not the same because they're sending all the predators
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to the women's prison that the ones who are the opportunistic uh manipulative
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people that that you would want to protect individuals from are being prioritized in all of
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this and protected and uh given so much power over the whole system when the police are afraid of you
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because of your lawyers there's a huge disconnect like how do you function in this environment knowing
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that there's no consequences for these people uh they're not going to get in trouble for anything
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and you're going to be penalized for even questioning the validity or the the legalities of this practice
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it it's really intense i think a common misconception is that we think this is only happening
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in blue uh liberal left-leaning states um can you provide any insight as to where across the country
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is this happening from coast to coast honestly this is federal law as well so if you have a women's
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federal prison in your state which you do it's happening there uh some of the most heinous
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horrible heartbreaking reports are coming out of texas um there's a minimum or a medium security
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women's prison that um several women were victimized by a post-op trans person who
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was actually transferred after assaulting all of them and released um no charges were filed uh women
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were denied medical attention um and this is texas you would never think i never i was really shocked to
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think that this was happening in texas uh but it it's all over the place it's not just here it's
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canada it's it's anywhere women are in cajuns this this is currently happening
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yeah speaking of of kind of globally here uh jk rowling tweeted this morning i believe she was
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uh commenting on a policy that's just been released in scotland um but what she said i think it's amazing
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that she's talking about it uh she said those male prisoners currently held alongside women include
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those convicted of murder and torture and those with intact male genitalia um and then goes on to
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say that this policy is trampling over the rights of incarcerated women and that the aim is to increase
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the possibility for male prisoners who identify as transgender to have access to women in prison
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and this blatantly sees women as providing a service of validation and of object and as objects
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and then further goes on to say that they're doing this this policy is committed in total secrecy
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so it's pretty amazing to have a woman an advocate like jk rowling on your side um what about i guess
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we've obviously talked about these men wanting to and jk rowling did as well uh wanting a hold of
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these women and to get access to these women what about women being impregnated by these men
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well like you said with the signage in new york there's similar signage in california that what
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in the they've never publicized it before this was right after the transfer started uh in the medical
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building they posted posters that say what your options are should you become pregnant during
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incarceration option number one being a plan b pill number two abortion number three connection with
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uh social worker to start the adoption process um this was never been a problem before clearly
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because women don't have penises so uh there were two abortions last year that i'm aware of and i have
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the public information request act responses um i believe there's to my knowledge someone pregnant right now
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uh and the one of the pregnancies last year was from the same alleged perp the same person uh
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there's this plot i think um james o'keefe discussed it with in an expo that he did in uh washington
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state there's a scam called the million dollar baby scam and uh people are linking up connecting to
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intentionally get pregnant for profit for lawsuits for settlement so this is the kind of sinister
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plotting and manipulating that taking place because of this type of legislation this is what this has
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done pregnancy for profit yeah i've heard of stories out of new jersey kansas ohio of course in
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california um of women being impregnated list goes on so i guess my question for you is you mentioned
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legislation and some different things what can we do as everyday people um to to one spread awareness
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that this is happening because i think a lot of people don't even know that this is an issue
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um to spread awareness and what can we do ultimately to help stop stop what's happening i think
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these kind of difficult conversations are or where it started having to talk to someone about something
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so awkward and unbelievable as housing rapists in a woman's prison uh is a game changer uh and over the
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last couple years i've realized that i get a lot farther by investing in the conversation um it encourages
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other people to do their research and um it's it's i think it's been pretty productive but outside of
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these uncomfortable conversations i think checking your own faith legislation to see what's on the
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book in regards to the housing of um trans-identified prisoners uh and if it's the same which more than
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likely it is contacting your uh state reps letting them know this are you aware of this did you read
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this bill from the top to the bottom do you know that there's fully intact uh predatory males being
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forcibly housed in the women's facilities let them know this is a big deal um supporting the women's
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bill of rights uh in your state is huge because if we had definitions in the law like we think there
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are it would be greatly greatly impactful uh there are no definitions in this legislation it's so
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nuanced and they're so um huge of a gray area that it just opens everything up for
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um this kind of insanity and unbelievable situation so contacting your your your state reps that are
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supposed to be representatives of uh they're supposed to reflect your beliefs not an ideology not a
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movement but what the constituents want and if you are not cool with housing men and women's prison
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and then you've got to tell them because they're not doing their job right yeah it's wild that in
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the nearly 250 ish years we've been established as a country of course we don't have a definition for
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the word woman because we've never struggled to define the word woman yet here we are in 2024
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where i would argue not only is it necessary that we define the word woman it is urgent that we define
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the word woman um which is a testament to where we are as a nation right now which is a pretty scary
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thought um but amy what can we do to support you and the work that you do because you really you are
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on the ground uh on the front lines of this you are in and out of the prisons you are talking to the
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women who are incarcerated being someone who's formerly incarcerated yourself how can we support
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you specifically in the work that you're doing well we can always use stamps we send a lot of mail
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um i know it sounds small but postage is increasingly expensive every single year
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and we send a lot of mail out um we do our best to keep people abreast on new legislation that will
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impact their lives uh and our newsletter we send it out you know once a month and um we're in regular
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correspondence with everybody else um i mean cars and money would be great too but in the meantime
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stamps are awesome um we aren't formally funded um i think i've really prioritized the immediate need
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of the women inside and i'm working backwards to kind of come to where we should be uh to be able to
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support ourselves and continue to do the work that we do uh if anybody has great deals in accounting
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or want to help with i don't know um creating an infrastructure with us uh that would be welcome
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also what's your website what's the website people can visit it is www.womaniiwoman.org
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ii for two for like roman numerals and uh there's so much that you can check out there
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and um there's different ways you can help and specifically give to areas that you um want to
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support love it yeah well it's amazing the work you're doing um it is our job i think people forget
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right i think we rely on the government um to do the right thing but what a what a naive thought
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uh to wait for these people to do the right thing unprovoked it is our job to hold their feet
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to the fire to hold them accountable to call out the hypocrisy our job as americans our job as
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consumers uh whatever state you live in it is our duty as the people and we have the power to make
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these changes but it's up to us to exercise our rights um to ensue these things get done so amy we
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are so grateful for you and for everything that you're doing uh we are uh looking forward to hopefully
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we can have you back on sometime soon uh and get some updates thank you thank you very very much
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make sure you check out womaniiwoman.com again amy's organization the work that she is doing to
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provide resources and support to those women who are incarcerated um especially how they're being
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impacted by men self-identifying as women and getting into their facilities um crazy stuff uh thank you
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guys for joining make sure you like and subscribe anywhere where you get your podcasts uh you can
00:25:37.020
check us out at outkick.com um last week i mentioned covenant rescue group uh this is a group that is
00:25:43.620
dedicated to ending child sex trafficking and exploitation uh the work they do is phenomenal
00:25:51.100
make sure you check them out at covenant rescue rescue group.com um please support them in any way that
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you can uh we will see you all next week thanks for watching