Abstract
The criminal punishment system plays a critical role in the production of race, gender, and sexuality in the United States. The regulation of marginalized women’s bodies—transwomen, butches, and lesbians—in confinement reproduces cis-heteronormativity. Echoing the paternalistic claims of protection that have inspired “bathroom bills,” gender-segregated prison facilities have notoriously condemned transwomen prisoners to men’s prisons for the “safety” of women’s prisons, constructing cisgender women as “at risk” of sexual assault and transgender women as “risky”, overlooking the reality of transwomen as the most at risk of experiencing sexual violence in prisons. Prisons use legal and medical constructions of gender that pathologize transgender identity in order to legitimize health concerns; for example, the mutilation of the body in an effort to remove unwanted genitalia as evidence to warrant a diagnosis of gender identity disorder, or later gender dysphoria. This construction of transgender identity as a medical condition that warrants treatment forces prisoners to pathologize their gender identity in order to access adequate gender-affirming care. By exploring the writings of queer and trans prisoners, we can glean how heteronormativity structures gender and sexuality behind bars and discover how trans prisoners work to assemble knowledge, support, and resources toward survival.
Highlights
This article considers the conditions under which queer, gender nonconforming, and transwomen’s bodies exist in carceral spaces and asks how heteronormative constructions of gender inform the policing of those bodies
Prisons use legal and medical constructions of gender that pathologize transgender identity in order to legitimize health concerns; for example, the mutilation of the body in an effort to remove unwanted genitalia as evidence to warrant a diagnosis of gender identity disorder, or later gender dysphoria
Available research regarding the treatment of transgender prisoners in the United States presents common themes such as abuse and maltreatment, sexual violence,accessibility to medical and mental healthcare, solitary confinement, and demands for recognition of transgender identity
Summary
This article considers the conditions under which queer, gender nonconforming, and transwomen’s bodies exist in carceral spaces and asks how heteronormative constructions of gender inform the policing of those bodies. Prisons use legal and medical constructions of gender that pathologize transgender identity in order to legitimize health concerns; for example, the mutilation of the body in an effort to remove unwanted genitalia as evidence to warrant a diagnosis of gender identity disorder, or later gender dysphoria. This article utilizes materials from an organization named Black and Pink to uncover the ways that medical treatment in prisons, sexual and gender violence in prisons, and the policies of prisons themselves inform transgender prisoners’ experiences of gender and sexuality. Black and Pink were receiving far more requests for pen pals from prisoners than the number of outside folks signing up to write to them; the idea of starting a newspaper emerged. It offered a way to foster connection between queer and trans prisoners, often isolated from any queer community or support within their given institution, without having them write directly to one another.
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