One Of My Fears…

Is being arrested. That is one of the reasons why I never drink when I’ll be driving. For trans-people we are usually put in jail of our birth gender if we do not have GRS down below and left to fend for ourselves.

For Transgender Detainees, a Jail Policy Offers Some Security
New York Times
By Adrienne Lu
December 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/23/us/for-transgender-detainees-a-jail-policy-offers-some-security.html
[…]
In March, she was charged with retail theft and sent to Cook County Jail. Despite her shoulder-length hair, fuller lips and breasts, Maribel (who agreed to be interviewed on the condition that only her first name be used) was housed with male detainees.

“It was horrible,” she said. “Sometimes words hurt more than a punch. People can be very cruel.” After two weeks she was moved to the women’s division, where she remains while awaiting trial.

Also in March, Cook County Jail instituted a new policy for detainees like Maribel, who either identify themselves as transgender or are identified by the jail’s medical staff as having gender-identity disorder, the formal diagnosis for those who feel at odds with their sex at birth.

Under the policy, which covers procedures for housing, clothing, showering, grooming, medical care and other aspects of life in jail, a gender identity committee meets periodically to determine and review plans for each transgender detainee. Among the decisions the committee makes is whether the detainee should be housed with men or women.

Of the 60 or so transgender detainees who have entered the jail since the new policy took effect, only two — Maribel and another person who was born with male anatomy but identifies as a woman — have been housed with women, jail officials said. All of the others, who were born male but identify as women, are housed with men but have opted for protective custody and are kept separately from the other detainees, a choice available to anyone entering the jail.

Sheriff Thomas J. Dart said he instituted the new procedures when he realized that the jail — which holds an average daily population of about 8,900, primarily consisting of people awaiting trial — did not have a policy on how to deal with transgender detainees.

In one of his weekly meetings of jail officials, “when it came up, I asked around the room what everyone’s thoughts were on it, and there was a collective pause,” Mr. Dart said. “It just became clear to me that we needed to have a more affirmative position.”

Yea!! Finally some progress, finally a ray of sanity!

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I’m still having problems with my high speed internet connection so I’m still using a dial-up modem. It makes reading the news hard because it takes so long to load pages with ads and photos