After almost three years of immigration detention — and abuse — a transgender woman looks for asylum

April 14, 2016 · 4:30 PM EDT
By Tiziana Rinaldi

http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-04-14/after-almost-three-years-immigration-detention-and-abuse-transgender-woman-looks

During her years at Eloy, where she was housed with men instead of women, she says she was taunted. "I was verbally attacked by officers and detainees all the time," Soto Moreno says.

A guard who noticed her pink toenails called her a "stupid ->-bleeped-<-got" and said, "I don't know what you think you're doing here." "You're not a woman. God hates you!" were frequent comments.

ICE has routinely placed trans women in male facilities, which often exposes them to sexual assault. Human Rights Watch reports that in 2014, 33.2 percent of immigrant trans women held in state and federal prisons reported abuse by other prisoners — 15.2 percent say they were abused by staff members.

The USA has a barbaric prison system, not just for trans people but for everybody across the board.  The majority of people, at least on the conservative side, think there is nothing wrong with that.  If you are in prison then you deserve whatever you get; rape, beatings, murder, you deserve it all for being an immoral criminal.


Sapere Aude

The U.S. Attorney for North Georgia and the Justice Department have opened an investigation into the Georgia Department of Corrections treatment of LGBT people and especially transgender people so maybe that will be a start.  Dee and I were at a panel discussion on TDOV and one woman talked about how, not only didn't the guards not protect her from sexual assault by male inmates, the guards engaged in it.  Plus not long before she was to be released, the warden took her to the prison barbershop and had them shave her head!