This horrid situation is not surprising, and I know there are people protesting it. However, are people marching on this issue of trans women in prison? I am glad there is a legal case going on, but it seems like it will take too long. Can the person ask for an emergency stay, until the case is fully adjudicated?
Two years ago when I said that Trump reminded me of Hitler when he was coming to power, someone castigated me for trivializing the horrors of the Nazis, which I was not doing. This story of anti-trans behavior reminds me how slowly different disliked groups were categorized and everyone who was not that category though "Oh I am safe," until their group was categorized. It feels like this to me. Some friends of mine here in Germany who are German and American like me, are discussing how many parallels we see. At first I was just thinking of the DDR, with the spying and incarceration and killing, but not mass killings.
There are many groups of people who are going to face Trump's cruelty, and those who cannot be "repatriated" to countries they may or may not come from or belong to, we now have a prison camp opening up again on Guantanamo, which is out of sight, out of mind. I just remember that when Hitler started with exterminating "defective" children and went on to adults in asylums, there was a public outcry, and I was taught that he learned from that to do his killing out of the country, thus the transport trains. No one was supposed to come back and tell. That is what this cuban detention camp is like, it is a concentration camp for immigrants who are the "Jews" of this administration.
In Germany there is a heavy schedule of demonstrations planned for this month leading up to the elections. They are against a newly passed illegal immigration bill, that has the "center" right parties joining with the Right Wing AfD to pass the legislation. It is outrageous, and truly frightening how quickly people capitulate and become publicly evil if they think they can get away with it. None of them are going down on the right side of history.
"But, of course, he [Trump] doesn’t actually care about sexual assaults." Of course, considering he's an adjudicated rapist. Forcible detransitioning is horrible and must stop.
I thought the president’s role was to make sure laws are enforced, like PREA for example…how is it that DJT can govern by decree like this? Is it just because people obey unconstitutional EO’s? How can a POTUS wreck lives by just saying so?
Trump’s EO on trans people—How Biblical! Donald hands down the Hundred Executive Commandments, in all their high-falutin’ pomposity, and expects a the cult to sigh in gratitude. Children of a lesser god.
Terrorizing women … well, what did you expect? This is an unloved loveless man whose idea of wooing is to grab genitals in a department store dressing room.
On January 24, 2025, Trump ordered all transgender women in federal prisons to be transferred to men's facilities, where statistics show they are ten times more likely to be sexually assaulted.
**********
I am an empty cell in the women's prison. Yesterday, I held Sarah. Today, I hold only silence.
They came for her at dawn. "Pack your things," they said. Simple words that meant everything. I watched her hands shake as she folded her few possessions. Watched her touch my walls one last time. Watched her try to be brave as they led her away.
I know where they're taking her. Across the yard, through the gates, to the men's facility. To cells like me, but not like me at all. Cells that will watch her suffer and be unable to help. Cells that will echo with sounds I don't want to imagine.
Prison cells know things. We know the difference between safety and danger. Between protection and exposure. Between survival and suffering. Sarah wasn't safe here—no one in prison truly is—but she was safer. The women in nearby cells looked out for her. The guards used her right name. She could shower without terror. Sleep without fear.
Now my concrete walls hold only memories. Of her quiet tears at night. Her whispered prayers. Her small rituals of survival—the way she'd touch up her eyebrows with a contraband pencil, maintaining that smallest fragment of herself. The photos of her mother she'd taped to my wall. The letter from her lawyer saying her hormone therapy would continue. All gone now.
I hear the other cells whispering. About the 1,500 women being moved. About the statistics we all know—ten times more likely to be assaulted. About the hormone treatments being stopped, as if stripping away identity weren't enough, they must strip away bodies too.
"There will be rapes," the lawyers say outside. As if we cells didn't know. As if we hadn't seen it before. As if we couldn't already hear the laughing from the men's cells, the crude comments, the promises of violence.
They call it "protecting women." But I am a women's prison cell. I know what protection means. It means not having to shower in terror. Not having to sleep with one eye open. Not having to suffer the thousand daily violations that await Sarah in her new cell.
They say it's about "biological truth." But I am made of concrete and steel, and even I know that truth is more than biology. Truth is Sarah's quiet dignity as she survived each day. Truth is the respect she earned from her cellblock. Truth is the safety she found here, however imperfect, however confined.
A guard walks past, doing count. His flashlight beam sweeps my empty space. One less to count. One more to worry about. Even the guards know what this means. I hear it in their voices, see it in their eyes. They know what awaits Sarah and the others. They know, and they can do nothing.
Tomorrow they'll assign me a new occupant. Life in prison moves on. But tonight I hold only echoes. Sarah's last footsteps. Her final touch on my wall. Her whispered goodbye.
I am an empty cell in the women's prison.
I knew how to keep her safe.
My counterpart in the men's prison knows only how to witness her destruction.
I hope Maria Moe is still alive and unassaulted by the time this case makes its way through the courts. It's unconscionable to do what trump wants to do to her.
Trump supporters probably applaud these actions. Their attitude is, "Who cares about a person who is in jail? They're a criminal, so they deserve to be punished. And if they're a pervert, they deserve to be punished even more."
It's sickening how many people in our country feel this way, will continue to feel this way their entire lives, and will continue to vote for Donald Trump as long as he is alive. When he does finally cease to exist, another person will step into his shoes and benefit from all the cruelty and hatred these people seem to need to be feel complete.
This horrid situation is not surprising, and I know there are people protesting it. However, are people marching on this issue of trans women in prison? I am glad there is a legal case going on, but it seems like it will take too long. Can the person ask for an emergency stay, until the case is fully adjudicated?
Two years ago when I said that Trump reminded me of Hitler when he was coming to power, someone castigated me for trivializing the horrors of the Nazis, which I was not doing. This story of anti-trans behavior reminds me how slowly different disliked groups were categorized and everyone who was not that category though "Oh I am safe," until their group was categorized. It feels like this to me. Some friends of mine here in Germany who are German and American like me, are discussing how many parallels we see. At first I was just thinking of the DDR, with the spying and incarceration and killing, but not mass killings.
There are many groups of people who are going to face Trump's cruelty, and those who cannot be "repatriated" to countries they may or may not come from or belong to, we now have a prison camp opening up again on Guantanamo, which is out of sight, out of mind. I just remember that when Hitler started with exterminating "defective" children and went on to adults in asylums, there was a public outcry, and I was taught that he learned from that to do his killing out of the country, thus the transport trains. No one was supposed to come back and tell. That is what this cuban detention camp is like, it is a concentration camp for immigrants who are the "Jews" of this administration.
In Germany there is a heavy schedule of demonstrations planned for this month leading up to the elections. They are against a newly passed illegal immigration bill, that has the "center" right parties joining with the Right Wing AfD to pass the legislation. It is outrageous, and truly frightening how quickly people capitulate and become publicly evil if they think they can get away with it. None of them are going down on the right side of history.
"But, of course, he [Trump] doesn’t actually care about sexual assaults." Of course, considering he's an adjudicated rapist. Forcible detransitioning is horrible and must stop.
I thought the president’s role was to make sure laws are enforced, like PREA for example…how is it that DJT can govern by decree like this? Is it just because people obey unconstitutional EO’s? How can a POTUS wreck lives by just saying so?
Trump’s EO on trans people—How Biblical! Donald hands down the Hundred Executive Commandments, in all their high-falutin’ pomposity, and expects a the cult to sigh in gratitude. Children of a lesser god.
Terrorizing women … well, what did you expect? This is an unloved loveless man whose idea of wooing is to grab genitals in a department store dressing room.
The Empty Cell Knows
On January 24, 2025, Trump ordered all transgender women in federal prisons to be transferred to men's facilities, where statistics show they are ten times more likely to be sexually assaulted.
**********
I am an empty cell in the women's prison. Yesterday, I held Sarah. Today, I hold only silence.
They came for her at dawn. "Pack your things," they said. Simple words that meant everything. I watched her hands shake as she folded her few possessions. Watched her touch my walls one last time. Watched her try to be brave as they led her away.
I know where they're taking her. Across the yard, through the gates, to the men's facility. To cells like me, but not like me at all. Cells that will watch her suffer and be unable to help. Cells that will echo with sounds I don't want to imagine.
Prison cells know things. We know the difference between safety and danger. Between protection and exposure. Between survival and suffering. Sarah wasn't safe here—no one in prison truly is—but she was safer. The women in nearby cells looked out for her. The guards used her right name. She could shower without terror. Sleep without fear.
Now my concrete walls hold only memories. Of her quiet tears at night. Her whispered prayers. Her small rituals of survival—the way she'd touch up her eyebrows with a contraband pencil, maintaining that smallest fragment of herself. The photos of her mother she'd taped to my wall. The letter from her lawyer saying her hormone therapy would continue. All gone now.
I hear the other cells whispering. About the 1,500 women being moved. About the statistics we all know—ten times more likely to be assaulted. About the hormone treatments being stopped, as if stripping away identity weren't enough, they must strip away bodies too.
"There will be rapes," the lawyers say outside. As if we cells didn't know. As if we hadn't seen it before. As if we couldn't already hear the laughing from the men's cells, the crude comments, the promises of violence.
They call it "protecting women." But I am a women's prison cell. I know what protection means. It means not having to shower in terror. Not having to sleep with one eye open. Not having to suffer the thousand daily violations that await Sarah in her new cell.
They say it's about "biological truth." But I am made of concrete and steel, and even I know that truth is more than biology. Truth is Sarah's quiet dignity as she survived each day. Truth is the respect she earned from her cellblock. Truth is the safety she found here, however imperfect, however confined.
A guard walks past, doing count. His flashlight beam sweeps my empty space. One less to count. One more to worry about. Even the guards know what this means. I hear it in their voices, see it in their eyes. They know what awaits Sarah and the others. They know, and they can do nothing.
Tomorrow they'll assign me a new occupant. Life in prison moves on. But tonight I hold only echoes. Sarah's last footsteps. Her final touch on my wall. Her whispered goodbye.
I am an empty cell in the women's prison.
I knew how to keep her safe.
My counterpart in the men's prison knows only how to witness her destruction.
And neither of us can do anything but watch.
This is horrendous. I hope she finds a sympathetic judge.
Every time I read about Trump's denigration of transgender people, I wonder: Does this apply to Caitlyn Jenner too?
She's a huge MAGA, and a frequent guest at MaraLago from what I've seen. Wonder what bathroom she's allowed to use there?
I hope Maria Moe is still alive and unassaulted by the time this case makes its way through the courts. It's unconscionable to do what trump wants to do to her.
Trump supporters probably applaud these actions. Their attitude is, "Who cares about a person who is in jail? They're a criminal, so they deserve to be punished. And if they're a pervert, they deserve to be punished even more."
It's sickening how many people in our country feel this way, will continue to feel this way their entire lives, and will continue to vote for Donald Trump as long as he is alive. When he does finally cease to exist, another person will step into his shoes and benefit from all the cruelty and hatred these people seem to need to be feel complete.
Hmm, ugly memories of Rush Limbaugh - the obese misogynist & racist - chortling over black lesbians — whatta man!