Gag at a gnat . . .

Several years ago, the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in Virginia began segregating some women in one wing of the facility in order to break up illegal sexual activity. The women say they were moved simply because they looked gay. They admit that there was no difference in the way they were treated, and the living conditions were no better or worse than the wings they were moved from.

Numerous inmates said in letters and interviews that the moves made them feel humiliated and stigmatized. Now, let's see . . . being in prison in the first place is not humiliating and stigmatizing? There is a solution. The humiliated inmates could quit trying to look like men. The inmates are truly running the asylum when we take away the prison's right to house inmates in the safest manner possible based on whatever criteria prison officials deem relevant.

"Inmates allege punishment for 'looking gay.'" The Dallas Morning News; June 11, 2009; p. 5A.