article here

Court officials fretted today about how to deal with a transgender inmate who is HIV positive.

Tanya Bowie, 33, of Philadelphia looks like a woman but has male genitals. Bowie underwent half a sex-change operation, according to court officials.

What do they mean by "half a sex-change"?

Karen

Quote from: Karen on November 14, 2006, 09:27:35 PM
What do they mean by "half a sex-change"?

Karen

I think they meant an orchiectomy.  I can't imagine what else it could be.  Some SRS surgeons tend to refer to a vaginoplasty as a two-stage procedure, being the first procedure the construction of the vaginal cavity and the second procedure, the labiaplasty; but I don't think this is this woman's case though.

Quote from: articleShe agreed with O'Keefe that a long term of solitary confinement was not appropriate

In my opinion, her being locked up in a solitary cell would be the most appropriate thing to do, unless they can accomodate her in some other way.  I think that men in prison are dangerous, but women in prison are not saints either, for some of them can also be extremely wicked.


tinkerbell

It is sad that bad checking writing is the crime most common for TS persons to commit. And when I think about her HIV status I can also make some "assumptions" there as well, in regard to the life this woman has lived. Too bad society does not address the needs of TS people no question in my mind that it would lower the number writing bad checks to survive, and need I say the number HIV infected.  I am not saying she should not be placed in jail, obviously she made the choice to do these things, but I do have to ask myself how desperate was she? She had to be really desperate.... is prison not one of the largest things TS/IS people fear?? I believe it has to be up there at the top somewhere!!

Just my thoughts on this.

Peace
Taylor

Quote from: taylor on November 14, 2006, 10:53:31 PM
It is sad that bad checking writing is the crime most common for TS persons to commit. And when I think about her HIV status I can also make some "assumptions" there as well, in regard to the life this woman has lived. Too bad society does not address the needs of TS people no question in my mind that it would lower the number writing bad checks to survive, and need I say the number HIV infected. 

Its dangerous to assume the root cause of anyone's HIV status, given the fact that the fastest growing population of new HIV cases is amoung elderly married couples.  Typical MO is the male seeks out a prostitute, gotta love Viagra, and has unprotected sex without telling his wife and ends up passing the virus on to her.

As for the bad checks, it wasn't as simple as buying groceries with a check you knew you didn't have enough money in your account to cover.  From the sounds of it, she was forging checks or simply creating fraudulent ones.  That's not a TS just trying to survive, that's just plain criminal behavior.

The harsh truth is that just like any other classification, so too do TGs have criminals among them. I make no assumption to what the motivation behind the checks in this case were, just that we can't go around thinking those we fall in our category don't break the law sometimes.

You could try to make an convincing arguement that we're prone to less criminal activity because we've got enough internal issues to take up our time but it would be hard to say no TG ever breaks the law.

Not sure on the relevance of my statements to this post but I just got to thinking about the comment on the motivation behind writing the bad checks.

-Us

Refugee,

I did not make an assumption stating specifically "how" she contracted the virus did I? I stated that her "Life Style" put her at risk. And there is a high number of people in the TS community that have been neglected by both family and society and  therefore are living high risk life styles.  I did not say what the "lifestyle is" however here is some data for you:

In our Nations Capital the Washington Transgender Needs Assessment Study found that 1/3 of persons in the Transgender population makes less than 10K a year. And 29% of respondants were unemployed. Only 1 in 4 reported being satisified with their housing situation. 13% reported not feeling safe in their current housing situation. 15% reported loosing jobs due to discrimination and only 58% reported being a paid employee.

San Francisco Transgender Law Center's study showed that 64% percent of the transgender population made less than 25K a yr. Over 40% did not have health care coverage, and 1 in 5 did not have stable housing.

Now based on these findings and I am sure several other cities nationwide as well it was concluded that these all interact with each other and therefore have far reaching effects. The list of effects in the given study analysis include the following of their TOP TEN;

1. lack of education and training due to discrimation which results in the inability to get and maintain a job.
2. Substance abuse and addiction
3. Discrimination by housing authorities and landlords etc.
4. Discrimination by social workers
5. Criminal records of all types of street survivial crimes ( drug trade theft and sex work) to which a person turns to doing when unable to make a living for their means.
6. HIV infections due to survival techniques or other means.
I am not going to list the other 4 because it is pretty retorical or does not apply to our topic directly. But 6 of the top ten sure do!

Study was provided by WTNAS Us Helping Us Living Inc. and fundedd by the Administration for HIV/AIDS Dept of Health of the District of Columbia Government. It is conducted during the period of Sept. 1998 to May of 2000. Also study was provided by National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Transgender Law Center (2002) TransRealities: A Legal Needs Assessment of San Francisco's Trangender Cxommunities.

As for HIV/AIDS numbers increasing. The specific increase you are talking about is with out a doubt one that has had great rise in numbers! However let me share some stats with you:

In the United States, resent evidence suggests a resurgence of HIV transmission among MSM;( Men having Sex with Men) during 2001--2004, an estimated 44% of new HIV infections were in MSM, and 17% were in IDUs (6). In addition, blacks and Hispanics together account for 69% of all reported HIV/AIDS cases. In the United States, 55% of persons in need of ART received it in 2005.  

Source: World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. Interagency Surveillance and Survey Working Group, Office of the US Global AIDS Coordinator, US Dept of State. Div of Global AIDS, National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STDs, and Tuberculosis Prevention (proposed), CDC.

I believe it is very accurate for me to say that it is sad that this woman has been a product of our social neglect. It does not mean I condone what she has done, it just means that we really have a lot of work to do for the community in mainstream society.

I do not believe that crime does not exist in the TS/IS population outside of the social factors and stats above, I know that it does. However what I am saying here in regard to the bad checks is that it is one of the most common crimes committed in the TS community. 

Refugee you state that you did not get the opinion that the person was doing it to survive. Well tell me this... how do you know?  Because of the number of checks? Writing checks as a way to survive can be done several ways not just at the food store.  Some people write checks at several places, return the items for cash and build the cash up over a couple of days to pay rent, electric etc. This is truthfully getting harder to do. Some have learned a way around store returns by purchasing items and then selling them for lessor values on the street, thereby being able to rent a hotel room for living in for a week or whatever. And some items they keep out of need, but all those checks add up quickly. The truth is the better you get at it the more you learn to do with the use of one check. So the numbers of checks are then lower, but it actually means you have learned to be quite effective at it.

If I were going to make some judgements on this individual the truth is I think that what she was doing was the least damaging to what she could have been doing. And because she offended before it also appeared to me from the report that the judge did not really want to sentence her. Maybe the judge knew the hardship she was up against and yet his hands were tied this time.  We don't really know. What I do know is that the studies that have been done on these issues all show me that it is all very sad and this woman is caught in a system that she may have never had to be in if we had a more educated society to live in. That is my bottom line. Maybe this clears up where I was coming from. But at the very least maybe it gives insight to just what all we need to be doing to educate the world around us.  That of course for anyone that knows me is my main motivation with all I do in the TS/IS community.

There is a huge Health Summit in March 2007 that is going to really be great. HIV/AIDS is a  topic that is going to be discussed for the GLBTI communities. I believe that work is in progress and am glad that it is!

Peace
Taylor

In as much as I've played the float game, in the past, I've written bad checks.  It was rather vague in the article what all she did, but I got the impression she was passing bogus checks purely for financial gain.  Not just as a means to make ends meet.  What's getting her sent to jail is she continued to engage in the same behavior after she was already convicted.

AIDS is spread by lack of education, I'll concede that it doesn't matter if your a TS living in poverty or a well to do retiree.  As for criminal prosecution of TS, like any minority, they're purely at the mercy of the justice system or lack thereof.

Hey Refugee,

Yea lack of education is a real reason that the virus is running to rampid. And the lack of education has a lot to do with the whole current gov admin controling this nation in my opinion...and others too lol.  Take away the free condoms, clean needles, and sex education and what do you get??

I don't want anyone reading this to think that I feel like it is okay for TS people to commit a crime, I just think we need to progress in our educating society on issues so that lives can be easier to live so that your not in a place where you have to do things to survive that can become hibitual. I have no idea why this gal continued to do it, but sometimes old ways die hard?

Peace,

Taylor