Read in full:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/nicolepas/the-wo...gender-peo
I have to preface this story by saying I agree - the transgender woman involved was mistreated. No one should be sexually abused in a cage - male or female.
That said, though Shaw's sexually abuse was heightened by her feminine appearance, this story highlights how terrible prisons are to men. It seems like if we wanted to avoid future incidents, we'd have to take prison rape seriously.
The story reminded me of a comment MikeCF made twitter that said something to the effect of "if prison rape doesn't matter, and genders are equal, we should just have coed prisons... right?" highlighting how absurdly people treat this issue.
The kind of person who'd campaign for trans rights is often also the kind of person who'd also make prison rape jokes if the victim was a man, or say he deserved it. Making this a transgender issue seems like a way of avoiding the fact that NO ONE should be abused in prison, male of female.
It seems like the same way gay marriage was a way of avoiding the hard questions society needed to ask about what marriage had become, transgender rights when arrested are a way to avoid real prison reform, and making the prisons safe for everyone.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/nicolepas/the-wo...gender-peo
Quote:Quote:
At the station, Shaw was placed alone in a cell — in the men’s cellblock. While she waited in her single cell, in full view of the men in lockup, she says one of them demanded she show him her breasts and said if she didn’t, he’d hit her in the face when they got to the U.S. Marshals’ bullpen. (In D.C., most people in police lockups are later transferred to the custody of the U.S. Marshals, a federal agency within the Department of Justice, before they see a judge.) “I’m facing a lot of time,” she alleges he told her. “I got no problem taking another charge.” Scared, she complied. After, she claims, men in a nearby cell masturbated.
Quote:Quote:
In police custody, Shaw says a male detainee touched her buttocks in front of an MPD officer, and a marshal later rubbed her breasts, butt, and between her legs for five minutes during a search. “He’s the best I’ve ever seen,” the marshal allegedly said, and joked that her breasts “must be implants, because hormones don’t make breasts stand up so perky.” According to Shaw, later, in the Marshals’ bullpen, male detainees allegedly groped her and she was forced to urinate in a cup in front of men.
I have to preface this story by saying I agree - the transgender woman involved was mistreated. No one should be sexually abused in a cage - male or female.
That said, though Shaw's sexually abuse was heightened by her feminine appearance, this story highlights how terrible prisons are to men. It seems like if we wanted to avoid future incidents, we'd have to take prison rape seriously.
The story reminded me of a comment MikeCF made twitter that said something to the effect of "if prison rape doesn't matter, and genders are equal, we should just have coed prisons... right?" highlighting how absurdly people treat this issue.
The kind of person who'd campaign for trans rights is often also the kind of person who'd also make prison rape jokes if the victim was a man, or say he deserved it. Making this a transgender issue seems like a way of avoiding the fact that NO ONE should be abused in prison, male of female.
It seems like the same way gay marriage was a way of avoiding the hard questions society needed to ask about what marriage had become, transgender rights when arrested are a way to avoid real prison reform, and making the prisons safe for everyone.
Read my work on Return of Kings here.