There have been a couple of legal victories that we have had, the first is about homeless shelters,
NYC Must Provide Separate Housing for Trans People in Homeless Shelters Under New Settlement
Gothamist
By Gwynne Hogan, WNYC
January 3, 2022
New York City must provide dedicated, separate housing for homeless trans and gender non-conforming people in city shelters in four boroughs, according to the terms of a recent legal settlement with Mariah Lopez, an activist with the Strategic Transgender Alliance for Radical Reform or STARR.By December 2022, the city has agreed to make at least 30 beds for trans people available across the city with locations in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Manhattan. The beds, which must have access to single-stall toilets and showers or private bathrooms, can either be located in new dedicated shelters or in separate units within existing shelter locations.
The agreement also includes a pledge by the city to potentially add more beds for trans people as needed going forward, though it doesn’t include specifics on what would be cause for an increase. Lopez and her attorneys will receive reports from the city on their progress, monitor complaints of harassment, and visit the designated shelters to assess conditions.
The agreement comes at the culmination of a four-year long legal battle Lopez has waged mostly alone as a pro se litigant, meaning she wrote all her legal papers herself without the help of a lawyer. Part of that litigation she undertook while she was living on the street, she said, after she fled the city’s shelter system in 2017. The terms of the November agreement with New York City were first reported by Xtra Magazine.
[…]
Lopez, 36, became homeless after the death of an aunt she’d been living with, Lopez said in an interview. She entered into the city’s homeless system and was soon transferred to Marsha’s House, a dedicated shelter for the LGBTQ community. But once at the shelter, she said she encountered an environment that was anything but welcoming.
According to Lopez’s original lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York, staff regularly misgendered her or used the pronoun “it” to describe her. They used homophobic slurs like “faggot” and pressured her and other shelter residents into sex acts, with the threat of having them transfered to a different shelter if they didn’t comply, the lawsuit alleges. The conditions were so demoralizing, she said she returned to the streets and to sex work for suvivial. A relative helped her rent a room several months later. At the time, Lopez said she asked herself repeatedly, “What would Sylvia do?” referring to her late mentor, Rivera.
“I’m gonna go to federal court and sue the living bejeezus out of the city,” Lopez said she decided at the time.
Okay I have two thoughts. The first is an incredulous they did that at a LGBTQ shelter? You would think that our gay brother and sisters would have more respect for trans people, evidently they do not.
And the second thing is can a trans person stay at other shelters or are we being forced to stay at the shelters just meant for us. I have a problem if we are required to stay at the trans shelters, it ghettoize us. I imagine that there might be some trans people who rather be in with the general population and not in a “trans shelter.”
The second article involves prisons and was sent to me by a reader.
Former Illinois inmate could be 1st federal prisoner to have gender confirmation surgery
A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to have Cristina Nichole Iglesias evaluated for the procedure.
Chicago Sun Times
By Stefano Esposito
December 28, 2021
A federal judge this week ordered the U.S. Bureau of Prisons’ Transgender Executive Council to evaluate a former Illinois inmate for gender confirmation surgery, marking the first time a judge has issued such an order to the federal prison system.It could pave the way for the first gender confirmation operation for an inmate while in federal custody, said Ed Yohnka, a spokesman for the ACLU Illinois, which is representing the inmate, now housed in Texas.
“It’s especially a big deal if you’re someone who has been suffering with gender dysphoria and unable to access the health care you want for years while you’re being detained,” Yohnka said Tuesday. “The second thing is, the estimate is there are about 1,200 people who are transgender in federal custody. We have a responsibility to take care of those people once they are in custody, and that includes their health care and whatever those needs are.”
There have been a number of federal court cases that ordered us to receive proper medical care including Gender Confirming Surgery, hormones, and to not to segregate us in solitary confinement.
Bravo to Mariah Lopez a liberation warrior who fully understood the idea, when you're under attack, Stonewall means fight back! Of course, that is what Sylvia, Marsha, Miss Majors and a host of other trans folks have done throughout ourstories. Shame on those who worked at the shelter I do hope they have been fired by now. I think that it boils down to, if the shelters cannot comply with treating Trans folks the way everyone should be treated, if those staying at the shelters cannot comply, then yes trans folks need and should have their own space and they should say what that space needs to be. If it's a matter of being beaten up or being killed because of ignorance, then I will take being ghettoized any day. Of course, it is a different story if folks are forced to stay at any certain shelter. But so be in for now, until this country and its people can grow up. I wonder if there are any complaints in Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport shelters or if after the great training that you, Jeri, and others did they have a handle on it all?
ReplyDeleteI think that the training fell on deaf ears,that it never reached the front line workers.
DeleteSadly I see that the only way to bring about change is by a hefty law suit and fines. I hope that it doesn't take a trans person freezing to death to bring about change like it happened down in Texas.