Lucy Zelic opinion: NSW government paved the way for men to try be transferred to women’s prisons

Nowhere in the feminist playbook did it provide instructions on how to combat the men cosplaying them, writes Lucy Zelic. She explains the real reason prisoners are trying to be transferred to women’s jails.

In these crazy times we now have women wanting to transition... to a female jail. Picture: ChatGPT

In 1949, the 34th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, delivered a speech in Galveston, Texas, shortly after becoming the President of Columbia University.

Fascism had been defeated in Europe but the effects of the post-conflict Cold War were on the rise.

During his address the five-star general said: “If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison. They’ll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads.

“But if an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his neck to any dictatorial government.“

Fast-forward to 2025 and we are living in an era where our politicians, who preach benevolence, continue to deceive, manipulate and destroy the very social and moral fabrics we were taught to revere.

We think we are free, secure and equal but we are not.

Case in point, the political pressure to allow the desires of males identifying as women to be granted the full force of law.

Consequentially, there is no freedom to dispute this, no security in female-only spaces and transgender males are now on an equal footing with females.

Nowhere in the feminist playbook did it provide instructions on how to combat the men cosplaying them.

Little did the suffragettes know that arguing for the right to vote would be the least of their concerns over a century later.

A NSW supreme court jury found Mark Terry Donai guilty of the murder of his friend's parents Bill and Pamela Weightman.

Now, we are faced with the reality that a male double-murderer serving a 43-year prison sentence is fighting to be transferred to a Sydney women’s prison after applying to be identified as female.

On last inspection, most criminals were doing their utmost to avoid being thrown in jail. Now some men are doing all that they can to book themselves a cell in women’s prisons.

Pictures of Terry Donai clearly show a man. No amount of hormone therapy or demands to be called “McKenzie” will ever change that.

It’s worth also noting that the convicted killer has “not undergone gender reassignment surgery”.

So why, have the Department of Communities and Justice Officials been sitting on this since 2023?

Tony Donai leaves the Supreme Court, Sydney, escorted by officers after being found guilty of the murder of his friend's parents Bill and Pamela Weightman. Picture: Brad Hunter

On 2GB yesterday, Acting Minister for Corrections Jihad Dib issued this statement: “We are not running the risk of an inmate convicted of sexual assault on a woman, nominating a change of gender and then trying to enter a woman’s prison. It’s not going to happen.”

Only, we’re not dealing with a criminal convicted of sexual assault - Donai was found guilty of suffocating his friend’s adoptive parents more than 18 years ago. And if you think that doesn’t present as a potential loophole think again.

There used to be a time in NSW where individuals who chose to identify as the opposite sex would have to undergo sex reassignment surgery to alter their legal records.

Not anymore.

Policy introduced by independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich has paved the way for requests for transfers. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

As of July 2025, sex self-ID legislation came into force in NSW meaning that anyone identifying as the opposite sex can have their desires respected.

No questions asked.

The architect behind the change in the law was Member for Sydney, Alex Greenwich, who comically called it the “Equality Bill”.

It was readily endorsed by Premier Chris Minns. To my understanding, Minns instructed his Labor colleagues to vote in favour of the Bill, which was rushed through both houses of NSW Parliament.

It passed in October 2024.

Premier Chris Minns and his government readily endorsed the change. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

During the inquiry process, a staunch opponent to the Bill, MP Tanya Davis, cited multiple examples where trans-identified males were exploiting the legislation to gain access to female-only prisons.

“The number of male offenders self-identifying as women to gain access to women’s prisons has become so common-place internationally that the term ‘prison onset gender dysphoria’ has been coined to refer to it,” she said.

In August 2022, the Herald Sun revealed that a man convicted of heinous sexual offences against women and children, who now identifies as transgender, was being housed in the Dame Phyllis Frost Correctional Centre for Women.

In the US, a convicted male criminal who served time at the women’s prison at the Chowchilla Central California Women’s Facility was charged with raping fellow inmates.

That our politicians couldn’t forecast the implications of housing male inmates with women says as much about their ignorance as it does their arrogance.

In catering to a minority and their feelings, they introduced legislation that would affect over 51 per cent of the nation’s population and contribute to the erasure of females.

It is a telling reminder that Eisenhower’s speech — over 76 years ago — about bowing one’s neck to “dictatorial governments” must not be forgotten and must be heeded now more than ever.

Do you have a story for The Daily Telegraph? Message 0481 056 618 or email [e-mail]