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On Twitter, The View’s Sherri Shepherd declared it “cruel punishment.” A Shepherd follower responded, “No no now, this is AWFUL! Seems like a definite death sentence for CeCe.” And the poet Ursula Rucker shouted (virtually), “There’s alot going on here…racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia…all equals one big fat INJUSTICE!!!”
While the “big fat INJUSTICE!!!” part remains a give-in among people with common sense progressive observers and advocates, I was surprised to learn that McDonald’s local supporters are in wait-and-see mode regarding her placement.
“People tend to think about how CeCe identifies as a woman and say she should be able to go to a women’s facility. But there’s really no history of transgender people being placed according to their gender identity. So once CeCe is placed in a permanent facility, she’ll look around and decide if she feels safe there. If she doesn’t, she’ll move forward with a civil suit against the Department of Corrections to be relocated to a safer place. That may or may not be a women’s prison.”
At the moment, the larger issue for McDonald is the state’s evaluation process. Over the next month, says Burgess, an ad hoc committee of prison health officials and wardens will form to determine McDonald’s gender (you read that right), whether or not she’ll continue to receive the hormones she’s been prescribed in the past and if she’ll be placed in administrative segregation, which is really just a glorified version of solitary confinement.
“In my experience, the committee process is remarkably abusive and just disgusting,” says Burgess. “Generally, they’re made up of all non-transgender people with absolutely no cultural sensitivity. They look at three things: physiology—meaning your genitals—sex orientation and prior placement. Rather than protecting transgender people, who are easily the most vulnerable group when it comes to sexual violence in prison, the underlying idea is that transgender people are sexual predators.”
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best to read the whole article here)
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