The sequence will have bristled the hairs of more than one viewer. On the set of what time on France 2, the journalist Léa Salamé received Marie Cau, the first transgender mayor of France. Around the table was also invited the blogger Dora Moutot who made transphobic remarks on several occasions. Last August, she notably co-published a column in Marianne to oppose a Planned Parenthood poster depicting a pregnant man. “The transactivist ideology is parasitizing this institution [le Planning familial] “, denounced the tribune. Two years earlier, Dora Moutot had also co-signed a column entitled “Trans: is it enough to proclaim oneself a woman to be able to demand to be considered as such? “. A text shared by Huffington Postthen unpublished before being reposted by Marianne.
This is therefore not the first time that Dora Moutot has attacked transgender people. One time too many? Maybe. Because in the middle of her attacks on the transgender mayor Marie Cau, the blogger made remarks that turned out to be absolutely unfounded. According to her, trans women are dangerous for other women, especially in prisons. “They will become women in prison, administratively speaking, and they will be transferred to women’s prisons. You end up with some men, I’m sorry to say, who rape their fellow inmates. I’m not saying that all trans people do this, far from it. But you have to be wary of people with penises as a woman,” she said on set.
After the outcry on social networks, the former Femen Marguerite Stern – signatory of the same stands – defended on Twitter: “Dora Moutot only states facts. A simple Google search in English will prove it to you. It is enough to privilege the comfort and whims of these gentlemen and not the safety of women”. 20 minutes returns to this big shortcut taken about transgender women detained and accused of rape in prison.
FAKE OFF
In July 2021, the Comptroller General of Places of Deprivation of Liberty (CGLPL) posted a review “relating to the care of transgender people in places of deprivation of liberty”. A report which explains first of all that in France, there is no public data on the number of transgender people locked up by administrative or judicial decision. “Research on the situation of transgender people deprived of their liberty should be financed and carried out by the public authorities”, recommends the Comptroller General.
The opinion also recalls that since the law of 18 November 2016 – which concerns the modernization of justice – “the modification of the mention of sex in civil status is no longer subject to a medical transition”. However, the report notes that no provision has been made for “the care of persons deprived of their liberty”. “The procedures for searching or assigning people whose civil status sex does not correspond to the anatomical sex are not currently defined by the texts”, underlines the opinion which points out the “uncertainty” of the legal framework for these detainees.
Fundamental rights violated
In his report, the Comptroller General recommends in particular the training of stakeholders on the subject of transidentity. “The CGLPL has found that staff in places of deprivation of liberty generally train themselves as best they can, by conducting their own research,” note the authors. More importantly, the opinion notes care for transgender people that goes against their fundamental rights. This involves in particular “assignment to a neighborhood that does not correspond to their self-identified gender, the misgendering that this induces and the many difficulties they encounter in the context of the procedures related to their transition, to which are sometimes added derogatory acts or remarks, even openly transphobic ”, writes the report, which warns of these consequences on their mental health which can sometimes lead to suicides.
“The vast majority of transgender people are incarcerated in neighborhoods that do not correspond to their gender identity,” adds the author, who notes that most of the time transgender people are placed in isolation wards, in order to avoid the risk of aggression. Only, this placement “reduces or even eliminates their possibilities of human contact and access to work, physical activity, appropriate care”. The report concludes by recommending that transgender detainees should not be directly placed in solitary confinement “unless it is a brief and last resort measure of an emergency nature”.
Misuse of facts
So why, after the controversy, Marguerite Stern continues by proposing to search these facts on Google “in English”? Certainly to prove that there have already been cases of rape by transgender inmates in prison. By typing “jail rape trans” [prison viol trans], there are indeed cases that have occurred in the United States, for example. Last April, the New York Post published an article about a case that occurred in the prison of Rikers, in the State of New York. “A transgender inmate at Rikers raped an inmate while in the women’s section of the prison and was sentenced to seven years,” the reporter said.
Another case was also reported last January, in the United Kingdom this time. In HMP New Hall prison, an inmate told the media that she was sexually assaulted by one of her fellow prisoners, a transgender woman. Only, as explained by the Comptroller General of places of deprivation of liberty to 20 minutesDora Moutot and Marguerite Stern seem above all to make an unfounded generality around various facts that have occurred in other countries, without taking into account the real problems experienced by transgender people in prison.