Washington state prison officials privately acknowledged that “trans” men could have more sinister motives for wanting to be housed with females.
A group of “gender affirming” mental health specialists discussed how to prevent inmates from requesting sex-changes for “secondary gain” rather than gender dysphoria during an internal monthly meeting. Secondary gain is a psychiatric term that describes the benefits a person with a mental disorder gleans from their neurosis such as “extra attention, sympathy, avoidance of work, and domination of others,” according to the American Psychological Association.
“The topic was on secondary gain and how certain individuals want gender affirming services, but it is not due to gender dysphoria,” the September 2024 meeting notes show. “The question was asked how to prevent that,” the records state.
The Daily Caller News Foundation obtained the meeting notes through a series of public record requests submitted to the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) .
The topic of discussion among DOC staff materialized four years after Washington state opened the door for “trans” men in women’s prisons.
“Access to women and women’s spaces is the primary incentive, including sexual access and targeting emotionally vulnerable women,” Beth Parlato, senior legal counsel of Independent Women’s Law Center, told the DCNF.
“Another secondary gain is exploiting trauma as the majority of incarcerated women have histories of male sexual violence. Power, control and dominance is also at play,” Parlato said.
An agenda for an internal Washington Department of Corrections monthly meeting of Gender Affirming providers obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation through a public records request.
A public manual, last updated in August 2023, for Washington DOC employees provided a protocol for staff to follow if they felt a newly transgender identifying inmate was “not sincere in their gender identity” and was claiming the identity “for an improper purpose.”
“Suppose an Incarcerated Individual discloses to staff and WADOC believes that an individual is not sincere in their gender identity and asserting it for an improper purpose. In that case, they will be referred to an external agency Gender-Affirming Mental Health Community Consultant, to evaluate the sincerity of the individual’s transgender identity,” the manual says.
Transgender identifying inmates determined not to have a “sincere transgender identity” could have their requests to be housed with the opposite sex denied by the Washington DOC, according to a 2024 draft of a transgender custody program manual obtained by the DCNF. The draft manual also notes “trans” inmates cannot be denied a “gender-affirming housing placement” for “discriminatory” reasons such as sexual orientation, a history of being a sex offender or complaints from “cisgender” inmates who don’t want to be housed with a member of the opposite sex.
The Washington DOC did not respond to the DCNF’s request to know if the draft manual was finalized.
“There is no fully objective way for a government agency to determine whether an individual has a ‘sincere transgender identity,’” Parlato told the DCNF.
“Determinations will inevitably involve subjective judgment. DOC will claim they evaluate indicators such as past self-identification, consistency, mental health documentation, past social transition or prior statements and prior records. However, this involves subjective decisions that will always bring in personal biases,” Parlato said.
Women’s spaces matter!
@ichinita310 shares her experience transitioning out of prison and leading @womaniiwomaninc, an organization that seeks to help other formerly incarcerated women by fighting for their right to sex-exclusive spaces. Read more:https://t.co/kxB04tA3Vz pic.twitter.com/7B7TiOclsd
— Independent Women (@IWF) January 5, 2026
The DCNF asked the Washington DOC for more information on the criteria used to determine an individual did not have a sincere “transgender identity” and for further clarification on the secondary gain inmates might derive from sex-rejections interventions, but did not receive a comment.
Other topics of the monthly meeting included discussions on “big changes” that could result from the November 2024 election and outside groups who were contacting inmates about gender “affirming care” in the DOC, documents show.
The Trump administration has vowed to keep men out of women’s prisons and the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a memo on Dec. 2 reinforcing a January 2025 executive order requiring inmates to be housed according to sex, a policy that challenges Federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) standards published in 2012 allowing males to be housed in female prisons.
“That is obviously insane, cruel and unacceptable…this administration will not allow that.” pic.twitter.com/0c6BEdo3R6
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 1, 2025
The meetings were led by psychologist Dr. Meg Manthos who founded Manthos Psychological Services, a psychology practice that specializes in evaluations and treatment planning for institutionalized “transgender” patients. The group’s primary service is providing readiness evaluations to those seeking sex-rejection surgeries, according to its website.
A signed contract between Manthos and the Washington DOC showed the state agreed to pay up to $3200 a day for consulting services and $450 an hour for courtroom testimony when requested by the DOC. Washington DOC has spent $1,184,889 on Manthos consulting services since the contract began in April 2020, according to the state’s fiscal transparency website. The contract was extended until April 2026, according to documents obtained by the DCNF.
Dr. Manthos did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
The DCNF obtained a public records document showing the Washington State DOC spent over $600,000 on transgender medical procedures from 2022 to 2024, with a sharp year-to-year increase. Washington state taxpayers footed the bill for $92,225 of transgender medical interventions in 2022, $203,651 in 2023 and $310,785 in 2024.
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