36-year-old Tahj Graham has gone through Hell in prison. It started in March 2018, when two correctional officers stripped him and sexually abused him. After he filed a complaint, they sent him to a jail in Austin, Texas. Then? To a women’s prison!
And Graham says that was “a million times worse.”
There, he endured more “voyeuristic strip searches,” sexual harassment from incarcerated women, and verbal abuse for being a transgender man. They also punished him with a barrage of write-ups for simply living as who he is.
And he’s not alone – 47% of Black trans people have been incarcerated! They often face similar indignities.
Punishments were doled out for not growing out his hair or shaving his beard. They even tried to force him into wearing a bra, despite having already undergone gender-affirming surgery over a decade prior!
But the Texas Department of Criminal Justice decided that they’ve done nothing wrong. “No further action is warranted,” they said.
But the reality is this: trans people absolutely have the right to live their life as who they ARE, not who this system wants them to be.
Prisons actively work to break Black trans men down because this system seeks to strip incarcerated people of any agency or humanity they have. Being brutalized and harassed by officers is not “justice.” It’s violently unjust.