The government of Western Australia (WA) has appealed a ruling that a violent male prisoner who transitioned after being sentenced must be transferred to a women’s prison.
The WA Supreme Court granted a stay of the earlier order by the State Administrative Tribunal to transfer the prisoner until the court hears the Department of Justice’s appeal in mid-August.
The tribunal had ruled that the prisoner, whose identity is protected by a suppression order and can only be identified as SD, has a right to be moved. The decision is being seen by critics as a test for WA’s gender self-ID laws introduced in 2024, which made it easier for a person to change the sex recorded on official documents.
SD has also launched a discrimination claim against the state.
Transitioning While in Jail
It is understood that the inmate began transitioning soon after being imprisoned and has undergone hormone therapy and extensive psychological treatment.
Although details of SD’s case are restricted, it is known that he is serving a lengthy sentence after being convicted of a violent offense.
However, he has obtained a gender recognition certificate under WA’s since-rescinded Gender Reassignment Act, which was used to change the sex on his birth certificate.
SD has reportedly already been subjected to physical and sexual assaults in prison, prompting his efforts to secure a transfer.
However, the WA government argues that placing the inmate in a women’s facility would cause significant disruption.
The Department of Justice’s lawyer, James Bennett, warned that if transferred, SD would likely be forced to spend most of his time “locked down” in his cell.
He added that there would likely be “significant curtailment” of SD’s rights in “whatever female prison she is housed”, according to a report by The West Australian.
Testing Gender ID Laws
This is not the first such case testing the handling of transgender prisoners in Australia and elsewhere.
Last year, a South Australian woman alleged she had been sexually assaulted by a transgender prisoner who was placed in her cell.
The incident led the women’s rights body Women’s Forum Australia to write to the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to protest the transfer of male offenders to women’s prisons.
The rights group’s chief Rachael Wong warned of “a national pattern of state–sanctioned injustice and abuse”, whereby male offenders “are being permitted to enter women’s prisons under the guise of gender identity”. She described the practice as dangerous and dehumanizing.
Male Prisoners in Female Prisons
In light of the case in Western Australia, Wong called for self-ID laws to be repealed and for policies to be introduced that would “unequivocally ban male offenders from women's prisons once and for all”.
The issue of male prisoners entering women’s prisons has cropped up across the world, including in the United States, the United Kingdom and several countries in Europe.
Earlier this year, the Scottish Prison Service was forced to reverse its policy on transferring male prisoners to women’s prisons, following a Supreme Court ruling that the definitions of “woman” and “sex” under equality legislation were based on biological sex.
