A transgender sex offender is now being held at a women’s prison in Maine while serving a 40-year sentence for the repeated sexual assault of a young girl. Nathan “Natasha” Venable was referred to as a “woman” by news outlets who covered his conviction, with none giving any indication he was male.
Venable has a lengthy sexual offense record dating back to 2007, when he was convicted of possessing 32,000 still images and 763 videos of child sexual abuse while serving in the US Army. Venable was sentenced to 5 months in prison, ordered to a lifetime registration on the state’s sex offender registry, and was designated a sexual predator. But following his release, he left Illinois and began living in different states.
In Washington, he was charged with failing to register as a sex offender, but appears to have left the state prior to being arrested. Venable eventually settled in Maine.
Local news reports from the time of his arrest indicate there were two young victims, but one case was never prosecuted. The second victim appears to have moved to Maine with Venable and her mother, though their exact relationship is unknown.
Venable began sexually abusing the victim when she was 10 years old while the two lived in close proximity in another state. After moving to Maine, the abuse continued on an “almost daily basis,” according to Central Maine, which referred to Venable as a “woman” throughout their coverage.
The child eventually confided in her mother about her abuse in 2022, prompting law enforcement to get involved. The mother then confronted Venable in a phone call she recorded and gave to police as evidence. In the call, Venable claimed he did not remember sexually assaulting the child.
While investigating Venable, police also found a trove of child sexual abuse material on his devices, almost all of which depicted the victim.
Venable was ultimately charged with 22 counts related to the sexual abuse of the young girl, and an additional 14 counts of possession of sexually explicit materials.
During his trial, Venable’s lawyer attempted to mitigate his crimes by citing his mental health and claiming that he genuinely did not remember repeatedly sexually abusing his victim over the course of three years.
His lawyer also referenced his military service, noting he had an “outstanding record” and had won numerous commendations prior to being arrested for possessing child sexual abuse material.
Venable ultimately pleaded guilty, and Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy sentenced him to 30 years in prison on charges of gross sexual assault of a child, and another 10 years on charges of sexual exploitation of a minor. Venable is currently expected to be released in 2060.
At the time of his conviction, Venable was already identifying as a “woman” and was referred to by feminine pronouns by media outlets covering his trial.
Local news outlet Central Maine referred to Venable as a “Monmouth woman,” and did not mention his transgender identity a single time in their coverage, leading readers to believe he was female.
On March 6, women’s rights advocate and journalist Jennifer Gingrich reported that a female inmate had informed her that Venable was being held at the Maine Correctional Center for women.
One of the inmates in the women's prison that we didn't even know about is Natasha Venable, who is doing 40 years for gross sexual assault on multiple children.
— ♀️Jennifer Gingrich ✡️ (@fem_mb) March 6, 2026
We never even heard about him because Maine media only reported that a "woman" had been arrested. @SteveRob… pic.twitter.com/81MHatXAuV
According to his profile on the Maine Department of Corrections website, Venable is classified as a “female” inmate.
Venable is not the only dangerous male inmate being housed at the women’s prison in Maine.
Andrew “Andrea” Balcer is also at the facility, where he is serving a 40-year sentence for murdering his parents and their dog.
Balcer was just one month shy of his eighteenth birthday when he murdered his mother, father, and family dog on Halloween night in 2016. According to reports at the time, Balcer had woken his mother and told her that he was having trouble sleeping. Alice Balcer asked her son if he was having a rough night and embraced him and, while she was attempting to soothe him, he stabbed her in the back nine times, killing her.
Balcer went on to murder his father, Antonio, and their pet chihuahua, Lily. The only member of the family Balcer spared was his older brother, whom he allowed to flee after telling him “it’s not your day.”
Balcer reportedly laughed while describing his crimes to a police officer, with the young man calling 911 himself to confess his crimes.
A violent male inmate convicted of slaughtering his family, claiming they did not support his gender identity, has been quietly marked as "female" in the Maine prison system.
— REDUXX (@reduxx) December 26, 2022
Andrew Balcer has also been moved to a facility that houses women.https://t.co/yDuXDnZ7of
“I snapped. I took my little Ka-Bar [military combat knife] there and I drove it straight into my mother’s back,” Balcer said. “My father came up because he heard her screams and I stabbed the fuck out of him. Oh, I killed the dog, too. It was barking.”
During the years-long court proceedings, Balcer’s attorneys cited his family’s lack of support for his gender transition as a motive for the crime. But just days before he was scheduled to plead guilty, Balcer abruptly began accusing his mother and father of physical and sexual abuse. Disturbingly, Balcer claimed his mother had molested him when he was between the ages of 14 and 16.
The shocking allegations were vehemently denied by Balcer’s older brother, who rejected the entire attempted narrative.
Balcer was recently highlighted in a sympathetic article on trans inmates by Uncloseted Media, which framed him as being a victim of Trump-era changes to federal inmate housing guidelines which restricts the transfer of males to women’s federal prisons.
Speaking to Uncloseted Media, Balcer complained about how he was “bullied” by US Attorney General Pam Bondi, who described him as a “giant, 6-foot-1, 245-pound guy.” Balcer also says some women at his facility began to target him with transphobic rhetoric he claims was inspired by Bondi.
“The cultural backlash has been astounding,” Balcer told Uncloseted Media. “And it’s not that I don’t understand these women — I 100% understand their position … But they can’t take out their anger on the people who quite frankly deserve it, [so] they take out their anger on the people that are the indirect cause of this.”
Though the federal government can’t influence housing policies in state prisons, in April of 2025, the Trump administration pulled $1.4 million in federal funds from Maine’s Department of Corrections for continuing to allow male inmates to be housed in women’s prisons.