Life in Hell

I've always maintained that I'm incredibly lucky.  Life for me has been relatively pain-free and comfortable.  I've had my emotional ups and downs, but my physical safety has rarely been an issue.  Yes, I was sexually abused in the Navy -- but even that was fairly isolated and caused me no real long-term issues.  I attribute most of my "luck" to the privilege I've enjoyed in my life -- most especially class privilege, gender privilege and racial privilege.

Last year, coinciding with the Transgender Day of Remembrance, I wrote about an e-mail exchange I had had at the Law School with a class-mate and then got into a comments exchange with another about the reason these women were killed -- they argued that it was just as likely violence against prostitutes as it was violence against trans people.  I rebelled at that logic.  But, it is of course, no real leap of faith to know that many trans-women are, in fact, forced into prostitution to keep body and soul together.  Not every trans-woman has my ability to work.

So, it should be no surprise that more than half of transwomen find themselves behind bars at some point in their lives. 

Transgender women are more likely to end up in prison than virtually anyone else. The oft-quoted statistic about African American men — that one in four has a history of incarceration — is dwarfed by the available stats on people who are male-to-female, or MTF. A San Francisco Department of Public Health survey conducted in 1997 found that almost two thirds of MTF respondents had been incarcerated. More than 30 percent had spent some time behind bars during the preceding 12 months.                 - cited in SF Bay Guardian News, w/o source

The story from which the above quote is lifted is about what happens to those women who do wind up in California's prison system.  It isn't pretty.  In fact, for someone who can relate to their identity -- as I can -- it's absolutely tragic. 

Rosa casts her dark eyes downward and then looks up from under wispy bangs to say matter-of-factly, "I've been raped six times.

"At one time I was raped by five individuals," she continues in slightly tentative English.

Rosa wasn't born female, but she says she was very young when she realized "I was special." Today, she doesn't just "pass" as a woman — it's hard to imagine how anyone would see this person with the bewitching eyes and feather-soft voice as anything else.

Except that for the past eight years, Rosa has lived in men's prisons.

The way the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) sees it, Rosa has a penis, and that makes her a man. Never mind that she hasn't seen herself as male for decades, or that she's been taking feminizing hormones since her 16th birthday. Rosa, who is serving 15-to-life for stabbing a man she says was trying to kill her, was never able to afford sex-reassignment surgery. The one time she came close to saving enough money, she spent it helping her sister set up a fruit stand in Mexico. So the prison system put her in with the men.

Rosa, 37, isn't just out of place: In the hierarchical and hypermasculine world of a men's prison, she's the ultimate target. She's been insulted, degraded, and smacked around countless times. If another inmate is feeling feisty, he's likely to take it out on her. And if it's sex someone is craving, there are more than a few reasons he'd look to Rosa to satisfy his desires.

I have no reason to believe that any other state is significantly better.  But, at least in CA, a group of trans inmates has formed to help correct that system from within.  At this point, the prison system there has no policies (none!) about how to deal with a trans-inmate.  These are brave women.  Can you just imagine what it must be like to try and reform such a system as an inmate? 

I'm out of time to comment further; I have a paper due today that I've only just begun.  Read the story.  If, somewhere in your life as a lawyer -- or just a citizen -- you have the opportunity to help, please do.  These are people, they deserve to be treated with some respect.