Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - Locked Up with the Wrong Gender

00:00:00.000 welcome back to the gains for girls podcast thank you for joining us i am super excited

00:00:12.580 about today's guest i know that i say that about every guest but today's guest is sharing

00:00:17.500 a new perspective adding a new perspective one that i imagine most of you haven't really

00:00:23.340 considered uh we have talked about this gender ideology movement and how it affects of course

00:00:28.740 female athletes we just had a lawyer and an ncaa official on we've had parents we've had coaches

00:00:34.200 we've had the sorority girls from university of wyoming the list goes on but i imagine you haven't

00:00:42.960 considered how this issue impacts prisoners and those women who are incarcerated in all women's

00:00:48.900 facilities today's guest her name is amy ichikawa she is a formerly incarcerated woman herself and 0.95

00:00:56.520 now she spends her time advocating for women in these institutions and facilities and advocating

00:01:02.440 for resources for them a big issue that she has faced over the past few years she's based out of

00:01:09.740 california if that tells you anything is men self-identifying as women and getting into women's

00:01:15.180 prisons and how this affects women i actually got to meet amy in new mexico a few weeks ago 1.00

00:01:21.560 uh we were there advocating for a new piece of legislation called the women's bill of rights

00:01:26.140 which ultimately defines and codifies the word woman and other sex-based terms i can't even believe

00:01:33.800 that this is necessary we have to define the word woman and and state statute really federal statute but 0.98

00:01:40.300 here we are in 2024 it is necessary that we do so um but look this bill the women's bill of rights 0.88

00:01:46.560 it's a lot broader than just protecting women's sports anywhere where the word woman is used in

00:01:52.200 state statute it would define this word so it prevents unelected bureaucrats and officials from 0.99

00:01:56.700 going through the back door and reinterpreting this word to mean what they want it to mean

00:02:00.700 which is what we're certainly seeing happening and in new mexico for example the word woman or female

00:02:07.640 is used 2045 times in state statute meaning again 2045 times uh for this word to be

00:02:16.280 reinterpreted to mean what whoever wants it to mean uh which we're seeing the effects of that now

00:02:23.100 um so very excited to talk with amy check out our interview here well amy thank you so much for

00:02:28.840 joining the gains for girls podcast it is nice to see you again uh we just got back from spending

00:02:34.040 some time together in new mexico which was incredible um and to just be able to hear some of the stories

00:02:40.400 stories you were able to tell me gosh i learned so much and so i'm super excited to talk to you today

00:02:46.040 um i wanted you to just start by telling us a little bit about you and your background

00:02:51.740 okay well thank you very much for having me um i am formerly incarcerated i served five years in a

00:02:59.620 california state prison i started a small organization a few years after getting out and i've pretty much

00:03:06.140 dedicated my life to um making sure that women in prison have the ability to rehabilitate in a space

00:03:14.620 that is conducive for rehabilitation which would be a space that's free of men um and that's that's 0.95

00:03:24.220 what we have in common um yeah it's it's really consumed it's just everything now it is

00:03:32.140 everything well talk about um outside of of kind of the gender id uh the self-identification mess

00:03:44.580 what are some of the the things that women specifically in prison face that are different

00:03:51.720 to that of of males in in men's facilities the issues for women in in women prison stem

00:04:00.900 from the lack of dignity the absolute disrespect the disregard for you as a woman uh it starts from

00:04:09.860 the time you walk in to the time you leave and even after that uh there are so many issues with

00:04:16.920 sexual misconduct uh the whole internalized misogyny of the system in general you're robbed of your

00:04:26.460 uh womanhood and femininity when you walk into the place um and we're just held to a different level 0.51

00:04:35.120 of accountability than men as well women are stigmatized very heavily uh because we're not

00:04:41.440 supposed to be nobody's supposed to be a criminal but you know technically i think uh women are held 1.00

00:04:46.980 to a much much higher standard uh you're permanently uh looked down upon and i i i'm trying to work

00:04:59.540 through it myself uh we have a tendency to beat ourselves up and it just hinders the whole rehabilitation

00:05:05.220 process so on top of all that uh just being a woman having to ask for you know pads or tampons these 1.00

00:05:14.340 are the kind of things that you don't think about on a daily basis but when you're in prison it does

00:05:18.980 impact you uh all the time you you had already alluded to the fact that men now are self-identifying

00:05:27.600 as women and they're getting into women's prisons you you do work across the nation but you spend a lot 0.58

00:05:34.440 of your time you're based in california um so you have seen as as you can imagine right um in a state

00:05:41.260 like california you have seen some of the craziest things um but i i guess i kind of wanted to ask you 0.81

00:05:49.520 outside of the obvious one of being housed with women which sounds awesome to a rapist or a sexual 0.77

00:05:59.520 predator or someone who's been charged with child pornography or kidnapping or any of these sexual

00:06:04.860 crimes what are the benefits to a man self-identifying as a woman and getting into women's prisons

00:06:11.740 uh safety um definitely safety is issue number one uh a large percentage of the people who are

00:06:19.100 transferring are uh individual to the state has a hard time keeping safe because of their status that's

00:06:25.860 not trans-related uh status with um the gang uh being informant um just very problematic individuals

00:06:36.580 so they're coming from these level four men's prisons their maximum security and entering women's 0.58

00:06:42.520 general population which is uh completely not segregated women are all integrated together 0.97

00:06:48.600 security levels one through four there's serial killers and uh you know um petty thieves all living

00:06:56.340 together and it's never been a problem until now when somebody who of the top security level is being

00:07:02.820 taken off of death row or uh super max men's prison and put into women's facilities in general population 0.56

00:07:10.640 it's like a kid in a candy store and this women the women's prison is like an unshucked oyster it's 1.00

00:07:18.820 just waiting to be discovered because there's so many opportunities for extortion for uh it's a gold

00:07:24.520 mine it's a gold mine for them that's why all these lawsuits are uh spinning and being created as we

00:07:30.160 speak uh there's a lot of money to be made in in these situations and these opportunists are going to

00:07:38.780 take advantage of this opportunity as expected yeah i like that you use the word opportunists

00:07:46.580 because i think that's a lot of what this movement is and look that's not me trying to water down

00:07:52.160 someone who who genuinely has gender dysphoria uh whatever that might look like um but there are

00:07:58.860 opportunists and that is what the system the systems that we have in place uh we're allowing

00:08:04.680 ourselves to be taken advantage of because of the opportunists so i i appreciate you using that word

00:08:10.560 um what does this mean that the women in these all women's facilities across the nation what does that

00:08:19.600 mean that they have to now endure because of these men into their facilities well it in a

00:08:27.420 like housing perspective um you're now completely void of any privacy or dignity you didn't have any

00:08:39.220 too much before but it's different when you're in a cell like in the world's largest women's prison 1.00

00:08:45.440 it's an eight-person cell so now you're getting ready for work you're changing you're showering you're

00:08:51.020 using the toilet with someone who possibly has a is a sex offender this is somebody who um is going to

00:09:02.440 be around you in the most intimate times of the day uh you're now like their comfort animal um

00:09:08.520 these people also have the ability to have you moved out of the cell at any given time because their

00:09:15.360 own perception of their mental health safety and well-being has to be taken into consideration

00:09:19.860 whenever any decisions are made uh in regards to their uh housing assignment job assignment

00:09:27.080 anything like that and these aren't rights that were taken away from a community and are being

00:09:33.140 redistributed this is stuff that nobody in prison has ever had this is uh violating laws that are

00:09:39.840 already on the book no inmate can have power over another inmate but these people now have the ability to just

00:09:46.140 bust up an entire room displace seven other women because you you want to possibly have single 0.73

00:09:54.880 self status all of this is stuff these women have to worry about every day now it takes years to cultivate 1.00

00:10:00.060 a group of eight women who can live together and uh thrive and succeed it takes a lot uh and knowing that at any

00:10:10.880 given moment somebody could just say i want that room and i want them all out uh is

00:10:16.540 it's it's got people on the edge of their seats just hyper vigilant uh there's no respite from this

00:10:24.660 just super bowl sunday they had to watch as while they're on lockdown because there's no staff there

00:10:30.360 the plant operation staff came in to install condom and dental down to set

00:10:36.320 uh because it was really important apparently all women's facilities now everyone should be 0.98

00:10:44.260 asking themselves why do they need men's condoms in an all women's facility and if you if you think

00:10:52.060 about this and lay this out for exactly what it is not only because you're not supposed to have

00:10:57.720 have sex in prison i mean that's that's a standard right i mean right it and it is they got

00:11:04.000 a memo that states you know sexual relations and sexual activity is still prohibited under any

00:11:10.280 circumstances but we're still going to provide this it's always for many years they've been

00:11:15.640 provided in the men's prisons because there's different you know activities and lifestyles that

00:11:21.560 are taking place in there there was they're trying to slow down the transmission of stis so it

00:11:28.600 has never been an issue in women's prisons but since they're introducing this factor into their 1.00

00:11:34.760 population it is going to be a problem and i think they introduced the dental downs at the same time to

00:11:42.680 kind of offset the shock factor that this this these are freaking condoms not only are they just

00:11:49.100 allowing intercourse by providing condoms it is as if they are encouraging intercourse and what i would 0.97

00:11:57.640 imagine in many cases encouraging rape because again these are are men who are convicted of sexual

00:12:04.060 assault crimes do you have any stats like obviously i think it's pretty well known women on average right 1.00

00:12:11.120 the percentage of of those who commit sexual battery or sexual crimes of course it's much higher for

00:12:19.520 that of men what is that do you have that any kind of stat that would relay that it's like this and

00:12:26.000 but technically um even within the the men's statistics i think their sex offender rate is 17

00:12:35.760 percent for general population and for the transfers just the transfer requesting people to women's prison

00:12:42.960 it's 33.8 percent so this is a really undeniably a large concentration of um sex offenders that is

00:12:52.040 trying to gain access to the women's prison of whom 92 percent are battered and beaten women

00:12:58.360 um it is rare to have female sex offenders they do exist but the way the law was written 1.00

00:13:05.280 if anyone in the prison of uh the selected gender has ever had any convictions that are related to

00:13:14.280 a transverse conviction then it it clears the way so one sex offender female it it opens this whole door 0.61

00:13:22.160 up to um serial rapists you know uh people with the most heinous sex crimes

00:13:29.160 again just to reiterate these these staff members worked overtime on super bowl sunday when everyone is

00:13:39.700 distracted right there's no media attention going on here everyone's focused on the super bowl

00:13:44.120 they worked overtime to come into all women's facilities and install condoms and dental dams 0.99

00:13:50.040 i was reading about a prison in new york uh again all women's facility that has posted placards talking

00:13:57.960 about pregnancy prevention uh what are the numbers again being in california um what are the numbers look

00:14:06.280 like like how many men are transferring to women's prisons and i think almost more importantly how many 0.96

00:14:12.720 women who self-identify as a male apply to get into men's prisons uh i believe the cdcr website said that

00:14:23.380 about maybe 11 uh trans men have tried to transfer but i know that there's only been one who has been

00:14:34.400 allowed to transfer and they had maybe three months left to do and they were sent to a men's prison

00:14:42.360 and

00:14:42.860 there were no complaints i think the conduct of the people that are in the men's prison is a little bit

00:14:51.180 different than the people who are transferring over

00:14:53.340 the dangers are not the same because they're sending all the predators

00:14:58.900 to the women's prison that the ones who are the opportunistic uh manipulative 1.00

00:15:06.640 people that that you would want to protect individuals from are being prioritized in all of

00:15:11.820 this and protected and uh given so much power over the whole system when the police are afraid of you

00:15:19.160 because of your lawyers there's a huge disconnect like how do you function in this environment knowing

00:15:25.320 that there's no consequences for these people uh they're not going to get in trouble for anything

00:15:30.420 and you're going to be penalized for even questioning the validity or the the legalities of this practice

00:15:36.380 it it's really intense i think a common misconception is that we think this is only happening

00:15:42.900 in blue uh liberal left-leaning states um can you provide any insight as to where across the country

00:15:53.100 is this happening from coast to coast honestly this is federal law as well so if you have a women's

00:16:01.580 federal prison in your state which you do it's happening there uh some of the most heinous

00:16:07.100 horrible heartbreaking reports are coming out of texas um there's a minimum or a medium security

00:16:14.940 women's prison that um several women were victimized by a post-op trans person who

00:16:23.740 was actually transferred after assaulting all of them and released um no charges were filed uh women

00:16:35.100 were denied medical attention um and this is texas you would never think i never i was really shocked to

00:16:42.360 think that this was happening in texas uh but it it's all over the place it's not just here it's

00:16:48.140 canada it's it's anywhere women are in cajuns this this is currently happening 1.00

00:16:52.260 yeah speaking of of kind of globally here uh jk rowling tweeted this morning i believe she was

00:17:00.580 uh commenting on a policy that's just been released in scotland um but what she said i think it's amazing

00:17:07.040 that she's talking about it uh she said those male prisoners currently held alongside women include

00:17:11.920 those convicted of murder and torture and those with intact male genitalia um and then goes on to

00:17:17.440 say that this policy is trampling over the rights of incarcerated women and that the aim is to increase

00:17:22.540 the possibility for male prisoners who identify as transgender to have access to women in prison

00:17:27.460 and this blatantly sees women as providing a service of validation and of object and as objects 1.00

00:17:34.180 and then further goes on to say that they're doing this this policy is committed in total secrecy

00:17:39.460 so it's pretty amazing to have a woman an advocate like jk rowling on your side um what about i guess

00:17:47.180 we've obviously talked about these men wanting to and jk rowling did as well uh wanting a hold of

00:17:53.220 these women and to get access to these women what about women being impregnated by these men 0.68

00:18:00.240 well like you said with the signage in new york there's similar signage in california that what

00:18:07.800 in the they've never publicized it before this was right after the transfer started uh in the medical

00:18:14.840 building they posted posters that say what your options are should you become pregnant during

00:18:22.140 incarceration option number one being a plan b pill number two abortion number three connection with

00:18:30.100 uh social worker to start the adoption process um this was never been a problem before clearly

00:18:37.500 because women don't have penises so uh there were two abortions last year that i'm aware of and i have 0.63

00:18:46.840 the public information request act responses um i believe there's to my knowledge someone pregnant right now 0.90

00:18:57.960 uh and the one of the pregnancies last year was from the same alleged perp the same person uh

00:19:06.480 there's this plot i think um james o'keefe discussed it with in an expo that he did in uh washington

00:19:15.280 state there's a scam called the million dollar baby scam and uh people are linking up connecting to

00:19:22.640 intentionally get pregnant for profit for lawsuits for settlement so this is the kind of sinister

00:19:30.660 plotting and manipulating that taking place because of this type of legislation this is what this has

00:19:39.720 done pregnancy for profit yeah i've heard of stories out of new jersey kansas ohio of course in

00:19:47.020 california um of women being impregnated list goes on so i guess my question for you is you mentioned

00:19:53.580 legislation and some different things what can we do as everyday people um to to one spread awareness

00:20:01.400 that this is happening because i think a lot of people don't even know that this is an issue

00:20:04.880 um to spread awareness and what can we do ultimately to help stop stop what's happening i think

00:20:11.340 these kind of difficult conversations are or where it started having to talk to someone about something

00:20:18.440 so awkward and unbelievable as housing rapists in a woman's prison uh is a game changer uh and over the

00:20:26.320 last couple years i've realized that i get a lot farther by investing in the conversation um it encourages

00:20:33.280 other people to do their research and um it's it's i think it's been pretty productive but outside of

00:20:40.840 these uncomfortable conversations i think checking your own faith legislation to see what's on the

00:20:45.860 book in regards to the housing of um trans-identified prisoners uh and if it's the same which more than

00:20:52.640 likely it is contacting your uh state reps letting them know this are you aware of this did you read

00:20:58.960 this bill from the top to the bottom do you know that there's fully intact uh predatory males being

00:21:04.640 forcibly housed in the women's facilities let them know this is a big deal um supporting the women's 0.94

00:21:12.300 bill of rights uh in your state is huge because if we had definitions in the law like we think there

00:21:22.840 are it would be greatly greatly impactful uh there are no definitions in this legislation it's so

00:21:30.520 nuanced and they're so um huge of a gray area that it just opens everything up for

00:21:36.660 um this kind of insanity and unbelievable situation so contacting your your your state reps that are

00:21:46.540 supposed to be representatives of uh they're supposed to reflect your beliefs not an ideology not a

00:21:53.440 movement but what the constituents want and if you are not cool with housing men and women's prison

00:21:59.580 and then you've got to tell them because they're not doing their job right yeah it's wild that in

00:22:07.340 the nearly 250 ish years we've been established as a country of course we don't have a definition for

00:22:13.160 the word woman because we've never struggled to define the word woman yet here we are in 2024

00:22:18.840 where i would argue not only is it necessary that we define the word woman it is urgent that we define

00:22:25.900 the word woman um which is a testament to where we are as a nation right now which is a pretty scary

00:22:32.360 thought um but amy what can we do to support you and the work that you do because you really you are

00:22:38.620 on the ground uh on the front lines of this you are in and out of the prisons you are talking to the

00:22:43.400 women who are incarcerated being someone who's formerly incarcerated yourself how can we support

00:22:48.640 you specifically in the work that you're doing well we can always use stamps we send a lot of mail

00:22:53.480 um i know it sounds small but postage is increasingly expensive every single year

00:22:59.040 and we send a lot of mail out um we do our best to keep people abreast on new legislation that will

00:23:05.900 impact their lives uh and our newsletter we send it out you know once a month and um we're in regular

00:23:12.980 correspondence with everybody else um i mean cars and money would be great too but in the meantime

00:23:19.220 stamps are awesome um we aren't formally funded um i think i've really prioritized the immediate need

00:23:30.600 of the women inside and i'm working backwards to kind of come to where we should be uh to be able to

00:23:38.000 support ourselves and continue to do the work that we do uh if anybody has great deals in accounting

00:23:43.660 or want to help with i don't know um creating an infrastructure with us uh that would be welcome

00:23:50.620 also what's your website what's the website people can visit it is www.womaniiwoman.org

00:24:00.360 ii for two for like roman numerals and uh there's so much that you can check out there

00:24:07.520 and um there's different ways you can help and specifically give to areas that you um want to

00:24:16.440 support love it yeah well it's amazing the work you're doing um it is our job i think people forget

00:24:23.740 right i think we rely on the government um to do the right thing but what a what a naive thought

00:24:30.620 uh to wait for these people to do the right thing unprovoked it is our job to hold their feet

00:24:36.280 to the fire to hold them accountable to call out the hypocrisy our job as americans our job as

00:24:42.260 consumers uh whatever state you live in it is our duty as the people and we have the power to make

00:24:49.300 these changes but it's up to us to exercise our rights um to ensue these things get done so amy we

00:24:56.660 are so grateful for you and for everything that you're doing uh we are uh looking forward to hopefully

00:25:02.520 we can have you back on sometime soon uh and get some updates thank you thank you very very much

00:25:08.960 make sure you check out womaniiwoman.com again amy's organization the work that she is doing to 1.00

00:25:17.260 provide resources and support to those women who are incarcerated um especially how they're being

00:25:24.160 impacted by men self-identifying as women and getting into their facilities um crazy stuff uh thank you

00:25:31.740 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

00:25:57.960 you can uh we will see you all next week thanks for watching

00:26:02.060 you

Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - March 20, 2024

Locked Up with the Wrong Gender

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