The Equality Act, which President Biden has vowed to see passed, would redefine “sex” in the amendments of the U.S. Civil Rights Act to include “gender identity.” According to The Economist: “The logical outcome of that would seem to be admitting trans women to spaces once reserved for women, from sports teams to prisons.”

Maine aligned with this view last week when Gov. Mills signed LD 1044, granting prison inmates the right to be housed in facilities for the sex with which they say they identify, “irrespective of anatomy or physique.” No sex reassignment surgery required, no automatic exception for violent criminals or even sex offenders. No legislator even mentioned potential risk to female inmates during the hearing or work session I listened to online, as if they were simply of no consequence at all.

Legislators did eventually insert an amendment allowing an exception for security risks to the facility, but don’t assume that protects women. Officials in multiple states have been pressured into moving even the most violent convicts from men’s to women’s prisons.

A Washington State Department of Corrections whistleblower recently revealed that “terrified” female inmates are arming themselves now that convicts — including serial killer Donna (formerly Doug) Perry, who confessed to murdering women out of jealousy that they could give birth — have been moved over from men’s prison. Female inmates have already alleged they’re being sexually assaulted, a claim that was also made in Illinois, where Janiah Monroe was moved to women’s prison even after being convicted of strangling to death a male cellmate. The woman forced to share Monroe’s new cell alleges she was raped the first night.

Of course trans inmates need safety, too. But it’s unconscionable to use women as human shields to protect other groups, at the cost of their own safety. Believing that incarcerated males instantly cease to be a threat to women if they identify as women themselves requires an astonishing level of both naivete and disregard for the women caged with them.

Trans activists dismiss concerns by saying “trans women are women,” but that ignores the reality that in addition to being more physically powerful, men are far more violent than women (they commit 90% of U.S. murders) and there’s no evidence that trans women have lower levels of criminality than men.

Eighty-six percent of female prison inmates have been found to be sexual abuse survivors. Some may well be re-traumatized simply by being forced to share intimate spaces and undress alongside male bodies (a survey by the National Centre of Transgender Equality found only 12% of trans women have undergone vaginoplasty).

Women and girls are rapidly losing rights our foremothers fought years to secure, from our own sports to our own spaces where we undress. We’re jeered as bigots for even the most reasonable objections, such as saying it’s unfair for faster, stronger trans athletes like New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, who just qualified for the Olympics, to take women’s places on teams and podiums. Feminist groups we long counted on to protect our rights now refuse to even acknowledge the women being harmed, much less advocate for them.

The rights of women and girls aren’t hate. We can support everyone’s human rights while acknowledging that biological sex comes with real, lived consequences for women. Article 8 of the Women’s Human Rights Campaign “Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights” states that women need “single-sex services and physical spaces for women and girls to provide them with safety, privacy, and dignity.”

This month in West Virginia, 14-year-old Jolene Grover blasted her school board for making girls share their gym locker room with male students who identify as girls (schoolgirls have now been told they must undress alongside male bodies, despite their objections, in other U.S. school districts like one in suburban Chicago).

Said young Jolene: “Your proposed policies are dangerous and rooted in sexism. You do this in the name of inclusivity while ignoring the girls who will pay the price.”

Her words were about school locker rooms, but she could have been talking about any former female-only space.

Women are told far too often that our boundaries don’t matter and we must give up our own need for privacy and safety for others’ sake. Maine’s new prison law is an unfortunate example of this.

Jennifer Gingrich of Portland is a signatory of the Women’s Human Rights Campaign’s Declaration of Women’s Sex-Based Rights.