SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Senate committee will mull over a controversial bill which calls for letting prison inmates determine their gender.

The author of the bill, an advocate of transgender rights, says the legislation is needed to protect inmates who are transgender and face bullying.

Supporters of the legislation say it will preserve a transgender inmates’ dignity. But opponents fear the bill could open the door to biologically male inmates declaring themselves female, and thereby able to share living space with a female inmate.

Opponents argue that the legislation will protect transgender males but put biological women at risk, and they call it “a recipe for complete chaos in the state’s correctional facilities”.