Fri Mar 23, 2012 at 04:00 PM PDT
Transwomen Incarcerated
by rservenFollow for TransAction
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/23/1077036/-Transwomen-Incarcerated (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/23/1077036/-Transwomen-Incarcerated)
And if that is how gay men are treated in prison, can you imagine the life of a transwoman sent to a men's prison?
I know the saying:
If you can't do the time, don't do the the crime.
But that's not always easy for transwomen. Survival depends on income, just like it does for everyone else. But legitimate employment is a scarce resource for transpeople. Is it any wonder then that some transwomen may turn to occupations like sex work and/or dealing drugs? The underground economy is always booming, even in bad economic times.
Mimi McNair went to an Atlanta emergency room last December with an infected finger. Not wanting to show her ID, which names her as Floyd McNair, she used her aunt's medicaid card. She is now in her second month in Cook County jail, awaiting extradition to Atlanta, having been arrested on an unrelated theft charge Chicago.