http://www.dailydoseofqueer.com/2005/12/30/rikers-island-closing-gay-and-trans-housing/ Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:16:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.dailydoseofqueer.com/2005/12/30/rikers-island-closing-gay-and-trans-housing/comment-page-1/#comment-1140 spinster Fri, 30 Dec 2005 20:43:04 +0000 http://www.dailydoseofqueer.com/?p=849#comment-1140 This is fucked up. I know one of the people involved in advocating against this new policy (who was quoted in the NY Times article that appeared today as well) and she also succintly summed up her mixed feelings about doing such work... In light of the massive growth of the prison industrial complex which is inherently transphobic, homophobic, and deeply racist, it's hard to be doing work to make prisons *safer* when the real work is in challenging the role of prisons in general and this country's increasing reliance on jails. BUT obviously there are immediate and dire needs, such as the safety of LGBT prisoners, that must be addressed. The person I know who is involved in the advocacy efforts sounded decidedly pessimisitc about being able to effect any change in the new policy. Scary. This is fucked up. I know one of the people involved in advocating against this new policy (who was quoted in the NY Times article that appeared today as well) and she also succintly summed up her mixed feelings about doing such work… In light of the massive growth of the prison industrial complex which is inherently transphobic, homophobic, and deeply racist, it’s hard to be doing work to make prisons *safer* when the real work is in challenging the role of prisons in general and this country’s increasing reliance on jails. BUT obviously there are immediate and dire needs, such as the safety of LGBT prisoners, that must be addressed. The person I know who is involved in the advocacy efforts sounded decidedly pessimisitc about being able to effect any change in the new policy. Scary.

]]> http://www.dailydoseofqueer.com/2005/12/30/rikers-island-closing-gay-and-trans-housing/comment-page-1/#comment-1139 corinne Fri, 30 Dec 2005 19:14:11 +0000 http://www.dailydoseofqueer.com/?p=849#comment-1139 i can't stress enough how sad this makes me. the safety of prisoners seems always to be at the bottom of the list of priorities, and since these are poor queer prisoners even further down the list. i used to be optimistic that rikers could serve as a model for making jails safe and accessible to transfolk... guess i was dreaming. i can’t stress enough how sad this makes me. the safety of prisoners seems always to be at the bottom of the list of priorities, and since these are poor queer prisoners even further down the list. i used to be optimistic that rikers could serve as a model for making jails safe and accessible to transfolk… guess i was dreaming.

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