Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - The Sacrifices of Speaking Out： Hector Bravo's Story

00:00:00.000 Welcome back to the Gainsborough Girls podcast. Today's guest is a former correctional lieutenant

00:00:13.040 inside the California prison systems. This is a correctional officer who worked inside

00:00:19.220 the men's prisons, but at the peak of his career, Hector Bravo Farrell realized he could not take

00:00:26.420 it anymore. Things inside the prison became dangerous. They became unethical. After SB 132

00:00:33.980 passed in California, a law, a state law that required prison guards to transfer convicts

00:00:40.500 from the men's prison to the women's prison based solely on gender identity. This law also allowed

00:00:48.600 male inmates who merely said they were women to demand that they be searched, of course, entirely

00:00:54.980 in the nude by female prison staff members. Farrell, he walked away from his stable, lucrative career

00:01:03.760 where he was making $157,000 a year at the end of his career to really become the first whistleblower

00:01:11.020 on these backwards policies inside the correctional world that he says put female prison staff and 0.96

00:01:17.540 inmates at risk. As said, he is the first whistleblower to speak out and resign in protests

00:01:24.160 of California's transgender prison policies, which, to be very clear, one more time, allow convicted men,

00:01:30.880 oftentimes men convicted of horrible, awful, heinous sexual crimes, to be easily transferred into the women's

00:01:39.240 facility. And of course, there's a lot of other corruption that he witnessed during his time as a correctional officer.

00:01:45.980 He has partnered with the Independent Women's Forum, really the leading women's organization,

00:01:52.640 in making a docu-series called Cruel and Unusual Punishments. Again, they've been doing phenomenal work

00:01:59.660 highlighting the stories of female inmates, formerly incarcerated women, women who have been impacted by

00:02:06.760 these transgender policies, and of course, Hector's story. He is an army veteran as well, which I think

00:02:14.180 shows you right there, his bravery. He's a girl dad. That's why he fights, but could not be more

00:02:21.260 excited to have him on the Gains for Girls podcast. Check out the episode here with Hector Bravo-Farrell.

00:02:28.240 Well, Hector, thank you so much for joining, and Kelsey. Kelsey is, of course, the storytelling

00:02:33.940 director at the Independent Women's Forum, and Hector is the phenomenal, brave, brave on many accounts.

00:02:41.860 He was an army veteran. He is an army veteran, but the stand that he has taken within his personal

00:02:48.140 career is beyond admirable, beyond courageous. And so I just wanted, Hector, you to be able to give

00:02:57.760 a brief overview of your background and ultimately how you found your voice in this fight now.

00:03:04.860 Yeah, first of all, thank you for having me on here. You know, it's an honor. Background about me,

00:03:11.620 for now, I'm currently 39 years old. I did resign prior to the age of 50, which was not the plan.

00:03:18.540 That's for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, where I spent 16 years as an

00:03:25.120 officer, a sergeant, and a lieutenant at two different prisons. Before that, I was in the army,

00:03:31.100 deployed to Iraq. And yeah, I resigned on December 1st, 2022. Kind of on a whim. Once I got a view of the

00:03:44.660 corruption, you know, there was a lot of things playing in that factor. And I mentioned before

00:03:50.540 we started the show that I currently have a five-year-old daughter. She was four at the time.

00:03:55.460 So that was a driving force. Of course. And Kelsey, very briefly, share who you are,

00:04:02.420 what you have been working on, because the work that you have been doing with the Independent

00:04:06.380 Women's Forum is remarkable. Well, thank you, Riley. We've worked together for a long time,

00:04:13.620 and it's my honor to be alongside you on your own show now. So we embarked on this mini documentary

00:04:21.660 series called Cruel and Unusual Punishment, the Male Takeover of Female Prisons. And in that, 1.00

00:04:28.800 we are mostly telling the stories of the ways female inmates have been victimized, really left as prey

00:04:37.280 at the whim of California lawmakers and decision makers who have opened the door for state prisons

00:04:46.080 to allow men to transfer over to the women's prisons simply by declaring they feel like a woman. 0.50

00:04:53.540 It's actually, it's insane. It's insanity. But it's actually quite devastating. And the stories we've

00:05:03.480 gathered along the way have really come to, like, devastate me, quite frankly, because most of the

00:05:10.780 women inside women's prisons come from very difficult backgrounds of sexual abuse and trauma.

00:05:16.300 The vast majority of female inmates have histories of sexual abuse and trauma. What we are now doing

00:05:21.420 is locking them behind closed doors, forcing them to sleep in the same very small living cells

00:05:28.620 with violent, predatory male felons. They have had no voice in this policy change,

00:05:36.600 and they have been abused in some of the cases we've collected. It's worse than abuse. They've

00:05:42.740 actually been sexually violated and allegedly raped. And, you know, along the way of this storytelling 0.95

00:05:49.780 journey of this series, we met Hector, and we are so grateful for his work and for the courage to use

00:06:00.500 his voice. Before we met him, he had resigned, and he can get more into that. And

00:06:05.940 the transgender prison policies were a big piece of the corruption he saw happening inside of there. 1.00

00:06:13.760 And so we had to give him a platform to help him share his story so that Americans can understand

00:06:21.400 the implications. And what's really interesting about Hector's perspective is that he was working

00:06:27.320 inside men's prisons. And so he knows what type of men we're dealing with, who, many of whom are

00:06:35.040 taking advantage of these policies to gain access to women's prisons. And so he's watching them get on 0.97

00:06:40.720 the bus, knowing their backgrounds, knowing the trouble they've caused inside the men's prison,

00:06:46.340 watching that bus pull away, and just living in fear that they're going to terrorize the female inmates.

00:06:53.960 Insanity. We had Amy Ichikawa on the podcast before. Of course, this is a female formerly incarcerated 1.00

00:07:04.220 inmate. She has done wonderful work in prison reform. I encourage everyone to go listen to that

00:07:10.240 episode from her perspective of what's going on inside the women's prisons. But Hector, you know,

00:07:16.060 your role as a correctional lieutenant inside the California men's prison system, you mentioned very

00:07:21.900 briefly the corruption. But I mean, when was the first time you had heard of this kind of thing,

00:07:28.240 at least in regard to the transgender policies, allowing men into women's prisons? What did this

00:07:34.520 kind of corruption look like from your perspective? So you got to understand prison is a microcosm of

00:07:40.220 society. So this was around 2015, because that's when I arrived and promoted to Richard J. Donovan

00:07:45.540 Correctional Facility in San Diego. Immediately was transgender training. So since I said it's a 1.00

00:07:53.320 microcosm of society, it's like at the same time that everything was happening out here in the

00:07:56.800 community, it was kind of following suit behind prison walls. And we were in a classroom setting

00:08:02.980 and the sergeant comes in, the investigative sergeant, mind you, which is supposed to be like a detective,

00:08:07.880 which is the role of a detective. And he's like, hey, you guys have to refer to these inmates as

00:08:13.360 the pronouns that they would like to be referred to. If not, you're going to get written up and in

00:08:16.940 trouble. And that was the beginning. That was in 2015. And it just snowballed from there. I mean,

00:08:25.020 people tried to, you know, kind of raise their hand and ask questions, and it was immediately shut

00:08:29.900 down and kind of just, you know, do as you're told or face the consequences.

00:08:35.540 Kelsey mentioned the types of men who would be transferring from the men's prisons to the

00:08:42.100 women's prisons under the state's, you know, transgender prison policy. I mean, I would have 0.99

00:08:48.620 my own imagination as to the types of men who would do this, who would identify as a woman by

00:08:56.700 merely saying I am a woman, getting into women's prisons, I'm sure many times with ulterior motives. 0.62

00:09:03.440 I mean, were these men oftentimes convicted of sexual crimes in the first place, ultimately,

00:09:10.760 that put them in these men's prisons? So the name Tremaine Carroll comes to mind. He was a real

00:09:17.280 problem child at Donovan State Prison. I avoided him like the plague because I knew of all the

00:09:22.700 allegations, fake allegations, frivolous allegations he would make on staff members, so much so that

00:09:28.200 everywhere he went, a camcorder had to follow him. And I had never seen that with any other inmate

00:09:33.380 before. Basically, he had a bunch of good lawyers or lawyers in general, whether they were good or not,

00:09:38.880 they were definitely winning against the state of California, the Department of Corrections,

00:09:42.500 which pretty much scared the department into submitting to whatever inmate Carroll's needs were.

00:09:50.340 And he identified as a female, and he did get housed at CCWF, Chowchilla, and he did impregnate 0.53

00:09:58.920 a female inmate. He had been there for the last couple years, and it wasn't up until last week,

00:10:06.080 right now we are in May. He got finally cell extracted from the woman's facility and transferred

00:10:13.260 back into a male institution. When it comes to him, you know, I did a little research on his case.

00:10:20.920 He was never convicted of a sexual offense. However, he was definitely arrested and charged.

00:10:27.020 It just didn't get convicted in the court of law.

00:10:29.600 Which sounds about right, California. But it's tragic that it takes a woman literally being 0.90

00:10:37.560 probably raped and impregnated before they realize the harm and the severity that this is causing

00:10:45.720 to women and to people in your position, correctional officers. It puts you in a really 0.87

00:10:50.300 a really hard position. So I guess, go ahead.

00:10:55.300 Yeah, sorry to cut you off. It's not that they didn't realize it. It's that they didn't care.

00:10:58.740 You know, and I've said, this is something I identified. The managers and the administrators,

00:11:02.800 the bosses in the California Department of Corrections are more concerned about their

00:11:06.380 personal agendas, personal gain, and worrying about getting the next promotion than actually

00:11:11.900 doing the right morally ethical thing.

00:11:13.980 That's tragic. And it's seemingly not unique anymore. This idea of profit over people and

00:11:23.220 immediate gratification and advancing these, you know, personal agendas or narratives. That seems

00:11:30.740 to be the theme across many different realms. I guess my next question is, what about, you know,

00:11:36.900 these people, these men who claim to be women? I mean, what about the surgeries there? Being in

00:11:45.980 correctional facilities, being incarcerated, is this something that's allowed to happen in California

00:11:52.360 or really anywhere across the nation? And if so, who's paying for it?

00:11:58.320 100% it's happening. We taxpayers are paying for it. 100%. And then it started off not so drastic,

00:12:06.560 right? Like I said, I would like to be called as Sally today. Okay, Sally, right? And then it,

00:12:12.540 now let's get female hygiene. For a male inmate identifying as a female, let's get the, uh, the 1.00

00:12:18.640 moomoo's, right? Somebody asked me what that is. That's kind of like a nightgown.

00:12:21.440 I think that was me, Hector.

00:12:22.580 A female nightgown. So you got male inmates wearing like these, uh, you know, you know how the, 0.84

00:12:27.580 like the hospital gown for a female, how it looks. You got them walking around the yard. And for 0.80

00:12:31.460 somebody that joined the prison system in 2006, that's, you know, it just looks odd and out of

00:12:36.200 place to be seeing men, male inmates walking around and move in moomoo's and makeup, you know,

00:12:41.600 blush lipstick, not to mention that can be an escape paraphernalia, you know, changing your 0.99

00:12:45.960 identity and being able to walk out the front door if somebody is not privy to it. Um, and then of

00:12:52.600 course the sexual realignment surgeries. Oh my goodness. Absolutely. 100%. Uh, there was one at

00:12:58.700 Donovan state prison. Again, I did not work at a female prison, but I worked at Donovan that housed 1.00

00:13:03.360 numerous transgender inmates. One got to go to, uh, Beverly Hills of all places on state time,

00:13:12.400 state correctional officers escort, transporting them and got a surgery to go from a male parts

00:13:18.760 to female parts came back and was bragging about how he was going to solicit his solicit himself

00:13:25.300 on the yard for money with the other inmates. And then here's the caveat. There was complications

00:13:32.180 with the surgery. So then he went ahead and sued the department for saying that they purposely,

00:13:37.040 you know, botched the surgery. And it's just, uh, it's insanity is what you stated earlier.

00:13:43.780 Is what was the, has the, the suit, what was the outcome of this? I imagine it's new.

00:13:50.220 Oh, I see. I imagine California prison facilities. Uh, I imagine they'd like to settle.

00:13:56.660 Oh, they all settle. They absolutely all settle for sure. 100%.

00:14:00.880 I'll be interested to see what the outcome in this scenario is.

00:14:05.860 Oh, they'll settle.

00:14:07.500 I there's no doubt about that. Um, these men, okay. So you did, you were a large part in,

00:14:13.220 in transferring these men to the women's facilities. Um, I mean, was there ever any behind the scenes

00:14:19.680 conversations of, you know, any insight as to whether or not these were genuinely confused men

00:14:28.860 at best or at worst? Did these men ever, I mean, admit to being manipulative and taking advantage of

00:14:36.820 the system? Uh, there are some inmates that will blankly, um, will blankly, uh, brag about manipulating

00:14:45.040 the system. You know, uh, the PRIA, the prison rape elimination act. That's a big deal. That's

00:14:50.640 a federal law where every peace officer has to investigate, you know, an alleged rape in the

00:14:55.720 prison. I can recall when I was a Sergeant at Donovan prison and an inmate claimed that he was

00:15:02.540 raped by his cellmate. We have to take the, both the suspect and the victim at separate times to

00:15:08.420 outside hospitals to go get the SART examination. That's all cost costing money, resources, time,

00:15:13.940 energy, and, uh, comes back. And the, the inmate straight up tells me, nah, he didn't rape me.

00:15:20.220 We just broke up. That's my boyfriend. I thought I'd get back to him.

00:15:24.300 You gotta understand, man, I'm level headed. I'm coming. I have common sense. And just hearing

00:15:28.380 that it doesn't sit well with me. No, how could it? And so Kelsey, I mean, I wanted to ask you,

00:15:34.720 um, protecting women's spaces, standing up for women. Uh, we see the outright violation of single 0.96

00:15:43.000 sex spaces from women's sports to locker rooms, to sororities, to of course, prisons, um, what you

00:15:50.100 all have been exposing. The degree to which these spaces are being violated, especially in prisons.

00:15:57.780 I mean, do you see state or federal lawmakers stepping up to take action? Or do you think it's

00:16:03.580 going to take more women being impregnated, being raped, being harmed, um, being, you know, 0.56

00:16:10.320 facing retaliation for not complying with this? Do you think that's what it's going to take before 0.75

00:16:15.600 these lawmakers on either side of the aisle ultimately step up?

00:16:19.100 Sadly, I have no doubt there's going to be more female victims before any of this 1.00

00:16:23.820 comes to an end. And to tease some upcoming videos and work we have in this series, there are even

00:16:30.960 worse allegations than we've put out thus far. And again, this does include alleged rapes, um,

00:16:38.320 on behalf of men who identify as women. Um, these were actually, since embarking on this docu series,

00:16:46.500 um, female inmates are getting more courageous. We need more Riley Gaines out there. And to your 0.99

00:16:52.740 credit, Riley, you using your voices, inspiring more women to find their own, but that's not easy

00:17:00.440 to do when you're living behind bars and you feel like you have no voice and the entire system

00:17:06.240 is working against you. But what we have to remember is yes, these women were convicted

00:17:14.100 and they are serving a sentence, but they were not convicted to cruel and unusual punishment,

00:17:21.380 which is exactly what this policy is forcing women to live in, in, uh, be at risk living with 1.00

00:17:29.540 biological men. That is the very definition of cruel and unusual punishment. And that is not what they 1.00

00:17:34.800 were sentenced to for so long. These men have been entering women's prisons and nobody's been doing

00:17:42.200 a thing. Nobody's the public in a way, wasn't ready to have this conversation. I'm really grateful that

00:17:48.600 we're able to have it now. And Riley, your work is a part of that. Um, because for a while people were

00:17:55.620 in, even in denial that like detransitioners even existed. And the, you know, everybody thought if you 1.00

00:18:02.880 don't go along with sort of the pronoun game and the transgender policies, you're not compact, 1.00

00:18:08.100 you're not a compassionate human being. Well, where's the compassion for the female inmates 1.00

00:18:13.140 who suffer from histories of actual rape and abuse, who are now being forced to sleep inside a living

00:18:21.220 cell with a biological male. It's about time we all take a step back and look at the implications of

00:18:26.880 these policies and find our compassion for the true victims in it all. And regarding how all this

00:18:33.660 is going to come to an end, you know, the first step is making the public understand the implications,

00:18:40.120 sharing these stories, um, having people like Hector take a step back, take a massive career risk

00:18:47.580 and a risk for his entire family, giving up his stable livelihood in order to speak the truth

00:18:53.380 about what's happening. Because unfortunately, um, you know, when, once you're working inside the

00:18:58.380 prison system, we don't, we haven't been able to find anybody willing to go on the record about,

00:19:03.780 um, what's happening because they all think they're going to lose their jobs into their right to fear

00:19:09.400 that because they might lose their jobs if they do speak on the record. Uh, but we, we need to share

00:19:15.520 these stories and then obviously pressure lawmakers to right these wrongs. There's nothing compassionate.

00:19:22.020 There's nothing right about these policies happening in California, not just in California.

00:19:28.780 Transgender identified inmates are kind of infiltrating women's prisons across the country 0.99

00:19:34.080 quietly. It's happening. Um, and we really need to put a stop to it. Of course, you know,

00:19:40.020 this issue is far bigger than that. You know, the Biden administration just recently perverted

00:19:44.900 title nine. Um, and so, you know, we definitely have an uphill battle, but I, I do have faith,

00:19:52.160 uh, that this insanity will come to an end and we will be able to protect women and girls and women's

00:20:01.000 faces. But again, not before there's more victims, sadly.

00:20:04.980 I think it's a really good point. You know, you mentioned the language corruption and how they 0.64

00:20:13.160 use words like compassionate or inclusive. Let's, let's remember why the women's facility was,

00:20:21.240 was ever created. It was designed explicitly to be exclusive. Inclusion is not always a good thing.

00:20:29.800 And to your point about the risk that people like Hector, uh, people in his same position might face

00:20:35.960 or, or certainly do face. I understand. I mean, it's real. Um, thinking back to when I was in San

00:20:41.760 Francisco, uh, ultimately being barricaded in a room, being held hostage for ransom by a bunch of

00:20:49.200 crazy protesters. Uh, the officers, the police officers in the room told me they couldn't do

00:20:54.720 anything because they weren't allowed to. They weren't allowed to do any, anything they said

00:20:58.960 that made them seem as, as anything other than an ally to that community because they would lose

00:21:04.400 their jobs. And remember, this is the same community who's on the other side of the door

00:21:09.100 where again, myself and the police officers were being held for ransom who called these officers 0.97

00:21:14.700 racist pigs for protecting a white girl like me. That's who they sided with rather than, then I guess, 1.00

00:21:21.440 fulfilling their most basic duty and ensuring my safety. Uh, they failed tremendously on just about,

00:21:28.960 every account. Hector, you know, you mentioned retiring early. You mentioned the pension that

00:21:35.820 you have now given up. Uh, you were really the first whistleblower, uh, from the correctional world

00:21:42.680 to speak out and resign in protest of the transgender policies, among other things. I want you to, to really 0.55

00:21:50.180 outline the sacrifices that you had to make. And I guess, you know, why aren't others willing to do the

00:21:57.640 same thing? I imagine you hear from your colleagues, um, from people who, who you used to work with.

00:22:02.800 And I, I would imagine there's a lot who are in total agreeance with you and support the actions

00:22:08.900 that you've taken. Thousands, 30,000, 32,000 to be exact on my YouTube count. But, uh,

00:22:16.460 yeah, it was not easy at all. Um, one of the major hurdles was that my own father was a correctional

00:22:22.960 officer who started in 1993. So you got to understand me telling him, I'm thinking of

00:22:27.960 quitting did not sit well with him. He has that old school mentality of, Hey, you're going to do

00:22:32.320 your time. You're going to work. You're going to retire and you're going to ride it out like

00:22:36.140 everybody else. But he didn't see what I was seeing. He didn't experience what I was experiencing.

00:22:41.020 And I told him I can't, it doesn't sit well with, there's something definitely conflicting

00:22:45.420 with inside of me. Uh, once I got the blessings from, uh, my father-in-law, my wife's father,

00:22:52.760 I, um, told him thinking about quitting. He's like, all right, you know, I support you in everything

00:22:57.240 you do. That's all I needed really, because he trusted me with his daughter and his granddaughter.

00:23:01.360 I had to work behind the scenes. Uh, like, like, um, Kelsey stated earlier, they will retaliate

00:23:07.680 against you. They will harass you. They will bully you. And if they don't fire you for speaking out,

00:23:12.460 they will look at everything you do under a microscope till they find out you messed up and

00:23:17.560 they're going to fire you. And it's going to look like they fired you for something else as opposed

00:23:21.080 to speaking out. That's part of the corruption. So what did I walk away from? I walked away from

00:23:26.660 $157,000 a year. That's how much I made in my last year while I was employed. Um, still have,

00:23:34.400 I still have had a mortgage still do. Luckily I didn't lose anything. I did have to struggle. Let me tell

00:23:40.060 you how to struggle. I did have to get two jobs. And that's kind of the first time I'm saying is I

00:23:43.480 had to get two jobs, security guard jobs when I bounced to, uh, to kind of make, make ends meet.

00:23:48.360 But I instantly felt the relief, um, gone. When I turned 50 years old, I can collect that retirement

00:23:56.060 that I put in for it. I just got to wait till I'm 50. So it's still sitting there for me.

00:24:00.880 Well, that's a blessing. Um, again, it's, it's incredibly admirable. There are so many people who

00:24:08.000 actually I would argue really, uh, 99% of people, if not more who would not be willing to, to put

00:24:17.420 morality, their morals, what is ethical, what is right, what is fair, what is just above money

00:24:24.780 above, um, you know, these, like I said, these, these things that immediate gratification,

00:24:32.060 but you did. And we've asked on this show, uh, many times, you know, the question of where are

00:24:37.940 the men, there have been a distinct lack of men's voices in the effort to protect women's spaces,

00:24:45.520 women's sports. Um, I think for a couple reasons, uh, I won't go into necessarily why I think, but

00:24:52.940 I wanted to ask you, you know, where are all the men in this fight and why did you ultimately decide

00:25:00.040 to speak out and share your story, uh, along with the independent women's forum?

00:25:04.480 Um, so I, I credit my leadership, my values, my honor to my leaders in the army. When I joined in

00:25:11.020 2002, I credit, I was young, impressionable, 17 years old. And I had men, literally, literal men,

00:25:18.960 heroes, legends who would later go on and get killed in action in Iraq. And that even would hurt me even

00:25:25.040 more. So I feel I have an obligation to live every day in their honor and to do the best that I can

00:25:31.980 because they're no longer here to do that. So that was my role model, right? That was my, um, initial

00:25:38.020 as a young youth, right? Um, you're right. Not that many people, nobody, I don't want to say nobody

00:25:47.360 cause I did it. There are a lot of people that are not willing to sacrifice some money, the title,

00:25:54.100 the security, and I'm not knocking them. It's like a hamster wheel that once you're on it,

00:25:59.780 it's almost impossible to get off. You know, what I did was I almost pulled off the impossible.

00:26:04.780 Well, I did pull off the impossible. I'm still here right now. I thought they would have thrown

00:26:08.260 me in prison for making something up by now, but it's been a year and a half. I didn't put it past

00:26:12.220 them. Hey, and don't put it past them yet. But, uh, but, uh, no, it's cool. Like I don't care about

00:26:22.980 money. I've been poor before I've been living in my truck. When I came back from Iraq, I was suffering

00:26:27.600 from post-traumatic stress disorder. My parents kicked me out. I don't care about titles or

00:26:31.900 positions or powers because my sergeants in the army showed me, Hey, these sergeant stripes don't

00:26:37.720 mean anything, right? I will have, if I got a problem with you, you're going to know it. And

00:26:41.500 these, these stripes aren't going to stop me. So that's what it boiled down to. It boiled down to

00:26:46.540 nah, my, my honor, my honor is I'm not going to stay quiet anymore. And it took a lot. It took the

00:26:54.540 whole COVID pandemic of wearing masks every day. The, the, um, you know, the vaccinations,

00:27:01.400 it took a lot for me to break the straw that broke the camel's back, you know, because I'm very, um,

00:27:08.220 resilient and it wasn't, it took a lot. It took a lot for me to, uh, make that decision. And it was

00:27:16.900 a risk. Oh man, it was a risk. So where are the men today? They've just been, man, it's almost like

00:27:23.240 brainwashing because especially if you're younger, what you have in front of you is a cell phone.

00:27:28.600 You have Tik TOK, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube. And at the time you had the media stations pumping

00:27:35.780 out what they want to pump out, right? Whatever is the agenda. So they're learning, right? Hey,

00:27:42.040 uh, be more feminine, be more soft, you know, this and that, but no, I'm old school. I'm old school

00:27:48.700 so much so that in my head, I think I'm a Spartan type of like mentality. Like, you know what I mean?

00:27:53.740 Provide, protect like a caveman. Yeah. I'm very respectful. I'm a gentleman. I walk on the right

00:27:58.460 side of the street. I opened the car door, but I think that's what a man is. Uh, provide, protect

00:28:03.680 for sure. Yeah. And I'm bringing it back. You best believe I'm bringing it back.

00:28:07.300 That makes my heart so happy to hear because I can tell you, my dad is one of those people too.

00:28:13.680 And I accredit so much of my leadership to being raised by, by parents who very much followed that

00:28:19.800 same mentality. I have very strong parents, parents who taught me how to be, of course,

00:28:24.340 an independent thinker, uh, how to stand up for myself, call out an injustice when I see it,

00:28:29.780 but I couldn't be more grateful for that. Uh, and yeah, to your point, that's often labeled as,

00:28:35.380 as toxic masculinity. No, our nation is suffering because we are lacking in the strong man department,

00:28:43.060 but people like you give me hope. And you mentioned you're a girl dad, right? So, um,

00:28:48.940 you're fighting for your daughter, five years old, right? You're fighting so she can have and play

00:28:54.780 fair sports. So you don't have to worry about a man going into her bathroom. I imagine if one did, 1.00

00:29:00.780 I can imagine what the outcome might look like on your side of things.

00:29:06.220 For sure. Yeah. Um, and I see, I see the big picture now cause I've stepped back and I have

00:29:11.580 like a bird's eye view. It was that driving force dating back to you, those years back we can

00:29:16.780 pinpoint maybe 2012, 2013, 2014, when the world started getting weird. Um, and that toxic masculinity,

00:29:23.160 but it did a number. Let me tell you, it did a number. Um, I think, I think we're at a turning

00:29:29.880 point. I think we're at a turning point because more people like myself and others are, are

00:29:34.820 sacrificing everything they have utilizing a platform on social media. And that's like a

00:29:42.460 caveat right there and getting to getting through to the masses and it's growing daily and people

00:29:48.300 are addicted to this truth. Well, we've been denied it for so long. Yeah. Well, if I can jump in on

00:29:55.920 what Hector just said, how he's breaking through the masses. I mean, the whole point is that these

00:30:01.340 women are being silenced because the mainstream journalists didn't bother to go in and ask the 0.99

00:30:07.180 female inmates, what are the implications of these policies? You know, they didn't bother to go 1.00

00:30:11.920 interview the, the female athletes who are losing opportunities or getting hurt because of biological

00:30:19.140 men. And they weren't asking the young girls if they were comfortable having a biological man in their

00:30:25.660 locker room. And in fact, during the research for this project, we came across, uh, uh, a couple of,

00:30:33.400 um, news reports. There was one NBC news did a report on the implications of this policy,

00:30:40.640 all from the perspective of the men of the transgender identified men. And so they actually went so far it to

00:30:49.480 go interview, spend time in the prisons. And not once did those reporters apparently stopped to

00:30:55.540 turn their heads and ask the female inmates, how do you feel about this? It was just a total puff piece 1.00

00:31:02.000 based on the trans identified inmates, which is misogyny. I mean, let's just acknowledge that 0.83

00:31:08.740 they're only reporting on the men, not, um, not giving the women a voice, a platform to share how

00:31:17.100 they feel. And again, they've been silenced. And that is why it's so important to cut through the

00:31:21.360 narrative, um, to use different media platforms. It's the only way we actually can give these women 1.00

00:31:28.620 a voice because sadly the mainstream journalists don't care. And that's a common theme. Uh, you look

00:31:36.020 at the IOC for example, or the NCAA, uh, nowhere have they invited women to the table to speak to how

00:31:42.600 these policies affect women. Charlie Baker even admitted it in front of either the U S Senate or, 1.00

00:31:48.560 or in front of Congress. I can't remember which one, but you know, he was asked, have women been

00:31:54.000 able to weigh in? Well, no, we haven't really taken into account how women feel. I mean, he, he blatantly

00:32:01.280 outright admitted it. Uh, and again, same thing with the IOC, uh, right now their policy or the science,

00:32:07.560 the research that they are using to shape their transgender policy as a whole is, um, a self-reported,

00:32:16.560 um, study done by Joanna Harper, who is a male who identifies as a woman who sits on the board or

00:32:23.540 whatever governing faction of the IOC. Uh, it's ridiculous. Kelsey, very briefly, you know, we 0.93

00:32:31.500 have mentioned several times the docu-series that the Independent Women's Forum is doing called

00:32:36.520 Cruel and Unusual Punishments. They are amazing, amazing, amazing. I mean, 10, 15 minutes, probably not

00:32:43.360 even that, little clips and stories of people like Hector, people like, again, Amy, who have been on,

00:32:50.260 um, and what they're seeing inside these prisons, what they're being forced to do, what they're being

00:32:54.960 asked to do, um, the manipulation behind it all. It is so powerful. It is so important. Um, I mean,

00:33:02.480 what can you tell us? Any sneak peeks about upcoming releases? What, what are you guys doing on this front?

00:33:08.180 Yeah, we have more coming. The series is only, you know, just getting started in some ways. Um, I,

00:33:16.460 you know, it's hard to get excited about what's coming because what's coming is more tragic and

00:33:22.300 horrific stories of female inmates being harassed and or sexually violated, uh, at the hands of men who

00:33:31.440 should not be living with them. Um, and so, yes, these are free available at IWF.org or on YouTube,

00:33:39.960 Cruel and Unusual Punishment. We are so grateful to, um, you for helping give these women, these female 1.00

00:33:48.000 inmates a voice and to Hector for, for his courage, for his values. It kind of makes me emotional listening

00:33:56.840 to him because I do feel like there is a severe lack of strong, moral male voices who are willing

00:34:06.100 to step up, be a voice to protect women and girls, to protect our spaces and really just to have our

00:34:12.760 backs. That's, that's kind of all we're asking for. I think we are all strong, independent women

00:34:17.780 willing and able to lead this battle, but we do appreciate men having our backs and Hector,

00:34:23.200 thank you for that. Thank you. Of course. Hector, I want to give you the opportunity. Um, the shirt

00:34:28.560 that you're wearing, where can people get it? I, I think this is from your own merch line. It's

00:34:35.240 amazing. If, if you don't have your video on, it says in God, we trust. And then of course,

00:34:39.920 in little letters below it, it says not government, which, um, I think more and more people are feeling

00:34:45.720 confident enough to wear a shirt like that. Um, where can we get that? Uh, project mat store.com.

00:34:53.440 He's a guy that does all my apparel. Amazing. Well, we are just so grateful for the sacrifices

00:34:59.860 that you have made the stand that you have taken, because of course you're defending your daughter,

00:35:04.160 uh, but you're defending so many girls and women, really humanity as a whole. You know,

00:35:10.280 we talk so much about girls and women, but this is, this is broader than that. This is about

00:35:14.540 protecting the sanctity of, of womanhood and manhood. Um, certainly both sexes are at jeopardy

00:35:21.020 here. Um, is there anything else you want to add? Any other, um, little pieces of, of information,

00:35:29.360 how we can support, uh, both you and of course the Independent Women's Forum and their cruel and 0.58

00:35:34.880 unusual punishment docuseries? I would say even goes bigger than that. I would just say it goes, uh,

00:35:40.600 good versus evil period. Um, and this is the way I see it.

00:35:44.540 Um, and it just simplifies things for me.

00:35:47.580 It's so true. 110%. I, um, could not agree more. And again, I think the majority of American people

00:35:54.260 could not agree more. Um, thank you guys. This inspires me. It really does to see strong,

00:36:01.580 strong leaders, um, brave people. That's, that's a rarity. Uh, telling the truth in a time of deceit is a

00:36:09.400 revolutionary act. And that is certainly what you have done, Hector. And of course, Kelsey,

00:36:13.860 uh, and the Independent Women's Forum by amplifying his story and his voice. So thank you guys.

00:36:19.920 Thank you, girls.

00:36:20.500 Thank you, Riley.

00:36:22.540 I don't know how any person could listen to Hector's story. Again, Amy Ichikawa, she's been on the podcast

00:36:29.280 before. I encourage you to go watch her episode. I don't know how anyone could hear these stories of

00:36:35.220 inmates and correctional officers, people involved in the prison system in California or, or, uh, really

00:36:43.280 in states across the nation now where these policies have been implemented and not, I mean, what a tear up.

00:36:50.800 It's heartbreaking, uh, that someone like Hector had to take the stand that he did, but we could not be

00:36:56.180 more proud. We could not be more grateful for him and his voice. Uh, make sure you are supporting him.

00:37:02.840 I encourage everyone to go to IWF.org, watch the Cruel and Unusual, um, Punishment docu-series.

00:37:10.400 They're doing phenomenal work, uh, highlighting these stories, spreading awareness, because

00:37:15.580 ultimately awareness has to be spread if we want these policies to be changed. It shouldn't have to

00:37:22.340 take more and more unfortunate circumstances before our lawmakers do the right and fair and just and

00:37:28.820 moral thing like Hector has done. Um, but again, thank you guys for tuning in. Uh, make sure you like

00:37:35.000 and subscribe anywhere where you get your podcasts. You can check us out at outkick.com and we will see you

00:37:39.780 again next week.

Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - May 08, 2024

The Sacrifices of Speaking Out： Hector Bravo's Story

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