Quote:Petition following brutal violence by Groningen woman (47) born as a man in women's prison. 'Trans women are a danger to female fellow inmates'

Transgender people born as men do not belong in women's prisons. This is the opinion of the Voorzij Foundation, which is submitting a petition to that effect in The Hague on Tuesday. The immediate cause: a transgender inmate from Groningen (47) beat up a female guard in a women's prison last year. The guard was no match for the physically stronger inmate.
"A man is a man and can never become a woman." Chairwoman Caroline Franssen (64) of the Voorzij Foundation has a strong opinion about transgender people. "A man without a penis is not a woman. Not biologically, not physically. Trans women incarcerated often still have their penises. But even without one, they pose a danger to female fellow inmates."
The transgender person mentioned from Groningen stabbed a man to death at his home on Verlengde Frederikstraat in the city in April 2024 and was in pre-trial detention in the Ter Peel women's prison in Limburg. There, a visit to the recreation area was refused, after which the person set fire to the cell. The female guard who wanted to intervene was attacked out of nowhere and was rescued with difficulty by colleagues. She was seriously injured with two fractures in an eye socket, possible permanent eye damage, and other injuries.

The stabbing took place on April 23, 2024, on Verlengde Frederikstraat in Groningen. Photo: Archive/ Noordernieuws
The serious incident—brutal violence is rare in a women's prison—fuels Franssen in her fight. "As a woman, you are naturally no match for a biological man who presents himself as a woman. Not in sports, not in the locker room, not in prison."

Lawyer: ‘difficult matter’
The transgender woman from Groningen was sentenced to 9 years in prison and compulsory psychiatric treatment for stabbing the man to death and assaulting the guard, and is now incarcerated in the Zwolle Penitentiary Institution, which has both men's and women's sections. Lawyer Maikel Horsch is representing the trans woman. “She has been placed in a mixed ward of the psychiatric center. But she would prefer to go to a women's wing.”

The lawyer speaks of ‘difficult matter’. “My client feels like a woman; she was also addressed as ‘Ms.’ in the courtroom. But she has the characteristics of a man; she is biologically a man as well.”

That is why the lawyer understands the call to no longer house trans women among female detainees. “In detention, we see special wards for terrorists, for example, because you like to isolate them. That also applies to sex offenders, because they are quite often at risk among fellow prisoners. Why not a separate ward for transgender people as well? That would tackle the problem.”

Activists from the Voorzij Foundation with banners at the courthouse in Dordrecht. Iratxe Alvarez Hernandez
Pornography with trans woman in Veendam
Another recent case involving a trans woman is currently being handled in the Northern Netherlands. In March 2025, the court sentenced a 40-year-old trans woman from Veendam to 3.5 years in prison and conditional TBS (no involuntary commitment) for possessing and distributing ‘the most disgusting child and animal pornography’. This detainee’s lawyer is not responding to callback requests from this newspaper.

Women are a distinct minority in the Dutch prison system. Only 6 percent of all people in detention in 2024 were women, according to figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS). On average, they also serve only a short time: 80 percent are incarcerated for a maximum of 3 months, and 60 percent for less than a month. Franssen: “So you are falsifying history and tampering with statistics if you record male criminals as women. It simply doesn’t add up.”

But the biggest problem is the lack of safety for women within the walls with men in their midst. “We are dealing with vulnerable women, who often have experiences with exploitation and sexual violence. That makes them extra vulnerable,” says Franssen. “Moreover, incarcerated trans women often have a mental disorder.” The former journalist and lawyer works as an independent coach and primarily trains therapists. She has been fighting for women’s rights her ‘entire life’.

‘No dick in the women’s lick’
Together with supporters in the Voorzij Foundation, Franssen protested against trans women in women’s prisons in 2023. With slogans such as ‘No dick in the women’s lick’, they expressed their displeasure at the fact that a sex worker born as a man was locked up in women’s prison De Peel. The transgender woman had killed a client with 214 stab wounds and was sentenced to 14 years in prison for it. And there are more examples like this.

Franssen denounces the privileges of transgender people in the Netherlands. “Society must go along with someone who thinks he was born in the wrong body. Otherwise, you do not respect him as a human being. Cross-dressing, homosexuality, it is all fine. But biologically speaking, you cannot change a gender,” says Franssen. Tomorrow she will submit the petition, which has been signed over 2,300 times, to the Standing Committee on Justice and Security of the House of Representatives.

Trans woman

Quote:Quebec’s public security minister says transgender inmates will be incarcerated according to their anatomical sex, not their gender identity.

François Bonnardel says in a statement the measure is to ensure the safety of all inmates.

He says inmates’ bodies will be scanned to determine which detention centre they will be directed to, adding that some accommodations will be possible.

Inside jails, transgender inmates will be allowed to identify with the gender of their choice.

• Susanna Rustin is a social affairs journalist and the author of Sexed: A History of British Feminism
  

Quote:If these men really were women – and political ones at that, as they like to pretend – they’d put their defeat to one side, suck it up and simply get stuck in to fighting for women’s issues to demonstrate their determination to keep faith with the second sex. There’s certainly a fair amount to protest about. The pandemic of sexual violence. The over-representation of females who have committed non-violent crime in prisons. The restriction of abortion everywhere from Trump’s USA to Communist Nicaragua. But they won’t be getting involved in any of these issues, as none of the goals would involve pushing women out of their own spaces and then trampling all over them with their man-size feet. Instead, they’ll sulk, shout and stomp around, ceaselessly thirsty for media attention.

Quote:Judges at the Supreme Court are considering how women are defined in law in a landmark case brought by Scottish campaigners.

It is the culmination of a long-running legal dispute which started with a relatively niche piece of legislation at the Scottish Parliament, but which could have big UK-wide implications.

It will set out exactly how the law is meant to treat trans people, and what it really means to go through the gender recognition process.

Quote:The case started on Tuesday, with judges hearing from lawyers acting on behalf of the For Women Scotland campaign group, which is concerned about the potential impact of trans rights on women's rights.

The Scottish government's legal representatives will address the court on Wednesday, before the judges retire to consider their ruling - which could take several weeks.

At the most basic level, the case centres on what “sex” actually means in law.

Quote:Rape survivors are no longer being referred to a support service in Edinburgh after a review found it failed to protect women-only spaces.

It also stated that centre's chief executive officer – a trans woman – failed to behave professionally and did not understand the limits of her authority.

The report, commissioned by Rape Crisis Scotland, found that Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre had not put survivors first or adhered to national service standards.

The charity has paused new referrals to the centre and said it was "extremely concerned" that women-only spaces had not been provided for 16 months.

Quote:[Biden's Title IX rewrite was o]riginally set to take effect in August, so far, the rewrite is now temporarily blocked from moving forward in at least 10 states — Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. And it seems the tide against the rewrite seems to have strengthened after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit decided on Wednesday to reject the Biden administration’s new Title IX rule.

Quote:New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu signed a series of bills that will [ban] [boys who pretend to be girls] in grades 5 to 12 from participating in girls’ sports teams and prohibiting medical professionals from carrying out ["sex change"] surgeries for minors.

Sununu also signed a bill that would allow parents to opt their children out of any public school instruction that features LGBTQ topics – and would require teachers to give parents at least two weeks notice before teaching such material.

But he vetoed a fourth bill, House Bill 396, that would have allowed businesses and government entities to discriminate on the basis of biological sex in bathrooms, locker rooms, sporting events, jails and prisons, mental health hospitals and treatment facilities.