Diana’s Little Corner in the Nutmeg State: Jailed For Being Trans.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Jailed For Being Trans.

If you look at my driver’s license and my passport, I have an “F” for my gender but my birth certificate has an “M.” So what is my legal gender? Say I’m going for a job and they asked for proof of citizenship and I show them my passport, it says I’m female. However, if they ask to see my birth certificate then that says I’m male. Or say I’m going for a marriage license in a state that does not have marriage equality and I am going to marry a man. I give them my driver license which says I’m female and they issue us a marriage license, well a trans-man did just that in Virginia and read what happened to him. Indiegogo.com writes that,

In the autumn of 2011, a man’s life was forever changed. A professional counselor with a love of surfing, he gave up everything he had in Florida to move and be with his new wife in Virginia. This woman then turned on him, not being able to bear the stigma of being partnered with a trans person. She completely and utterly abandoned him. The man was convicted of a felony. His crime? Being transgender -- he put an "M" on his marriage certificate…
…This was considered a FELONY. Despite having gone through the expensive and emotional process of medical and legal transition, he was still sentenced to five years in jail. His sentence was suspended to one year which he has spent wholly in solitary confinement.

This is a fear that I have every time I’m asked to give my gender; whatever I write down could be argued as being false. As I point out earlier, I have both genders listed on my legal documents.

I also feel that it is a violation of his human rights to be kept in solitary confinement for a year just because he wrote an “M” on his marriage license; solitary confinement is for harden criminals and is used for punishment. There have been a number federal courts cases that have ruled that solitary confinement for trans-inmates is cruel and unusual punishment. To confine transgender inmates in solitary confinement is the prison system way of taking the easy way out to protect a trans-inmates from assaults and rapes. In court order cases the trans-inmates were transferred to the general prison population and provided additional protection. In other countries and in some states a special wing of the prison is set-up for trans-prisoners.

What are your thoughts…

2 comments:

Stana8/26/12, 11:19 AM
Yes Virginia, there is transphobia.
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katie eggeman8/26/12, 1:22 PM
This is a cruel miscarriage of justice. I guess we will continue to have this kind of injustice until laws and human hearts change.t
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