Mississippi might allow incarcerated people to sue prisons over transgender inmates
JACKSON, ma’am. — A bill before Mississippi lawmakers could give incarcerated people the ability to sue jails and prisons if they encounter inmates of the opposite sex, such as transgender people, in restrooms or locker rooms.
State lawmakers advanced the proposal from a House committee on Thursday. It would require that prisoner toilets, locker rooms and sleeping quarters in prisons be used only by members of one gender. If inmates encounter someone of the opposite sex in any of these areas, they can sue the prison under the proposal.
Correctional facilities in the state are already segregated by gender, and Republican Rep. Gene Newman, the bill’s sponsor, could not cite a single example of a Mississippi facility forcing an inmate to share spaces with someone of the opposite sex. Instead, Newman said, he introduced the bill in response to people in other parts of the country getting shelter that matches their gender identity.
“It gives the inmate a course of action,” Newman said. “When I look at the things that are happening across the country, I mean you have girls’ sports. You have men pretending to be women just to win. It’s going to happen in prison. Men are not allowed to interact with women. Period of time.”
The legislation defines ‘sex’ as ‘the biological sex of a person, male or female, as observed or clinically verified at birth’. It contains no language about intersex people – people born with physical characteristics that do not fit the typical definitions for male or female categories.
Newman said the bill was written in part by the Alliance for Defending Freedom, which describes itself as a Christian law firm.
A notice distributed to lawmakers, which Newman said was prepared by the company, cites a California law that requires the state to house transgender inmates in prisons based on their gender identity — but only if the state has no “management or safety issues.”
Transgender inmates are often housed based on their gender at birth. Advocates have said the practice can be dangerous for transgender women housed in male-only facilities.
A report on the California law released by the state Office of Inspector General found that as of December 2022, 382 people had requested transfers based on their gender identity.
The state held hearings for 55 of the 382 requests, approving 36 and denying 19. None of the hearings during that period were for incarcerated people requesting a transfer from a women’s prison to a men’s prison, the report said.
The Mississippi law was introduced amid a broad effort in conservative states to restrict transgender athletes, gender-affirming care and drag shows. This year, Republican lawmakers are considering a new set of bills that would limit medical care for transgender youth — and in some cases, adults. That marks a return to the issue a year after a wave of high-profile bills became law and led to lawsuits.
In 2023, Newman sponsored Mississippi’s law that banned gender-affirming hormones or surgery in the state for anyone under the age of 18.
Newman’s latest bill awaits consideration by the full House.
___
Michael Goldberg is a staff member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him at @mikergoldberg.