Day: February 27, 2018

From watching the film Major!, I learned about the terrible treatment and abuse of transgender women in the prison system. I have known that the prison system of the United States is corrupt in its treatment of inmates, but I was unaware of the way that transgender women are singled out and abused. Miss Major talked about the ways that she was singled out from the rest of the prisoners, and how the prison guards shaved her platinum hair and eyebrows, and forced her to walk around the prison naked. They exercised their power to strip her of her identity and make her vulnerable. I learned from the film that unfortunately, stories like Miss Major’s are not unique, as many transgender inmates face similar abusive treatment. They are humiliated, raped, and tortured. Transgender women are overwhelmingly kept in solitary housing units, under the guise of “protection”. This film left me wondering as to why there is such a lack of policy protecting transgender people who are incarcerated, and why, despite many reports being made of rape and abuse, there is a severe lack of action and justice. Video cameras are all over prisons, so there is no reason that offending prison guards shouldn’t be held accountable.

-ML

I had known beforehand that communities and families of trans and gender-nonconforming people existed to provide love and support for members of those communities, but I didn’t realize until watching Major! how much effort and energy some of these communities were willing to put into providing this support, even to people who weren’t necessarily personally known within that family. I found it very moving that Miss Major and the organization TGIJP were so deeply committed to paying close attention to and showing love and understanding towards every member of the family and larger community, even writing letters and keeping that close relationship and sense of deep connection with trans people in jail that they had never met before. I thought it was interesting, too, that Miss Major was so devoted to fostering commitment and dedication to the community, seeking her daughters out soon after they got out of jail to make sure they came back to TGIJP to help support others still in jail, rather than just focusing on their own lives. I found myself wondering how Miss Major had the resources and, more significantly, the strength to do all of this for her family and community, especially in the midst of all of the oppression and hatred she faced; I doubt I would be so immediately able to set aside my own problems and focus on the safety and well-being of everyone else in the community first.

Major! Directed by Annalise Ophelian, What Do We Want Films, 2015.

SB

Let me just say, that I LOVED this documentary! This film was so beautifully put together I found myself emotionally overwhelmed at many points while watching. Between the telling of Major’s story or of the lives of the other women, I felt so connected to these women and was empathetic to their struggles and pain. I also greatly appreciated the fact that the film was focused on the lives of Trans women of color. When I first entered the class, I know that the Trans women of color voice was an aspect that I noticed was missing from our class discussions. So it was nice to be able to have something that was solely focused on this ideas. I feel as though this film is a beautiful piece and that people should watch it out of pure enjoyment but also for educational purposes.

I feel like the film overall was extremely informative. The things that stood out to me the most was learning about TGIJP (Transgender, Gendervariant & Intersex, Justice, Project). This was an organization that I didn’t have any prior information about. I think the first time I started thinking about the Trans presence in the prison system was when I first started watching “Orange is the New Black” which was a popular Netflix series. I think that the issues that Sophia Burset (Laverne Cox) went through in the system spoke to watch went on behind bars. Through the documentary I think it became that much more learn and significant to my understanding of the issue. I personally loved the message that the organization fights for, just the fact that it is lead and organized by a group of Black Trans women is amazing. But what’s more amazing than that is the fact that they, themselves, have been to prison and want to advocate and offer support to other Trans women. I just was so taken aback at how beautiful that is. These women have been tortured and mistreated, beaten, raped and ridiculed while behind bars but that doesn’t kill their spirit.

Something that I found myself wondering about was if Rochester’s Trans committee would benefit from a program such as TGIJP? I think that without a doubt the answer is yes. After watching this film I honestly believe that their needs to be more programs designed to help strengthen the Trans committee. One issue that come to mind was how Major talked about how she found it difficult to find work while she was transitioning/transitioned. I think that if organizations and companies worked closer together that they should develop programs that would work to help Trans people who have served their sentences, find and keep steady forms of work. These women are looking for a fresh start but if they can’t find work and have a means to sustain themselves then it is a cycle like Major said. Trans people just like everyone else need to survive and be clothed. I think our society needs to do more for the progression of the Trans community. These people are still fighting and pushing to make their voices heard and know. I commend their hard work, determination and spirit,  because they “Are Still Fucking HERE!”

Major! was a very interesting film that contains many details that I’ve never really delved in to discover. One of the more pressing themes of the film involves the prison system. Most of the time spent thinking about the prison system, I’ve only ever noticed it in terms of privatization and the grossly large proportion of people of color incarcerated. One thing that often is overlooked is the presence of trans men and women in the prison system. While there has been more recent exposure through the use of mainstream film and media, like Orange is the New Black, I often forget the concerns and trials that trans POC face in the system from sexual assault to lack of hormone therapy.

Even beyond that, trans people are often placed in assignments that do not fit their identification, and that poses a threat that often leads to violence. Most times, they are even placed in the shu (aka solitary confinement) for their own “safety” which the U.N. identifies as torture when over 15 days.

After the film, I was left wanting to know more about Miss Major and the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP). I want to know the current state of affairs and more that I can do to ensure proper reform.

I thought Major! was a wonderful documentary about an important activist and community advocate. While I knew Miss Major was a long-time advocate for the trans community, I had no idea about the number of women whose lives she had personally touched. Miss Major supported so many people not just with marches or protests, but with simple human interaction. She has cared for people who had no one else, and shown so much genuine human kindness throughout decades of adversity.  When we talk about activism today, we often focus on organized efforts and the legal process. And those things are important, but so is Miss Major’s dedication to taking care of people on a personal and community level.

Something that the film left me thinking about was what limited control we have over our legacies. We are so fortunate that Miss Major is still here to help tell her own story; historically, trans people often aren’t.  Everyone has their own boundaries regarding what language they’re comfortable being referred to as, and every time I read about historic(al) trans and gender non-conforming people I wonder what language they used to describe themselves, and what language they would have used today. I think it’s important that we are continuously conscious of discussing people respectfully, even we might use different language to refer to ourselves.

The film, Major!, provided a very human perspective on transgender women in prison. I was aware that a disproportionately large number of  transgender people were sent to prisons (as we learned from other films like Screaming Queens), but I now understand significantly more about the terrible situations that the trans people had to work through once they were there. A quote from the film which I feel sums up the situation quite well is when Miss Major was asked how the transgender women were treated in prison. Her response was “Shady as F”***in’ sh*t,” to which one of the other women in the room responded, “So normal.” Trans women in prison are treated terribly, and this moment shows a very human perspective on the situation—namely, that it’s horribly unjust.

A concept I’m still wondering about relates to the cause of the disproportionate amount of trans people (especially of color) in prisons. Specifically, I’m curious about the degree of activeness in the decision to put trans women into solitary confinement. That is, are there explicit, spoken rules in certain prisons that dictate that trans women should be placed into solitary confinement for their “protection?”

As an extension to this question, to what degree is the greater number of trans people in prisons purely a result of trans people being kicked out of their families, forced into prostitution, and other situations, and how much is it a result of other causes? For example, how much of this disproportionality can we attribute to an internalized transphobia of prison workers?

–AG

The film was so interesting to watch. I learned so much more about how transgender people of color are so abused when they are in jail. I really enjoyed getting to see a little bit about who Mrs. Major is, because she has been doing amazing work with the Transgender, Gender Variant, and Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP). What surprised me the most were the statistics that Major talked about. She said that about 58% of people in jail are Black and Latino, but that we only make up about 25% of the population within the United States. I was really surprised by that number. I knew that many of the people in jail were people of color, but I did not know just how much suffering transgender people went through in jail either.

From that point, I am wondering why is is that more than half of the people in jail are people of color. What I want to learn more about is, out of that percentage, how many of these people are part of the LGBTQ+ community, especially how many are transgender, because of all the abuse that they receive in jail? I also want to know why there is little to no coverage of the deaths and murders of transgender people of color? I have heard about it through other LGBTQ people, but I have not heard it once from a news report or article. I hope that this starts to change with the amount of transgender activists that are standing up to these injustices.

While watching the film “Major!”, there were many new things I learned about the transgender community, especially transgender people of color. A generalized thing I learned was that the United Nations considers more than 15 days of solitary confinement to be torture, yet our prison system uses it in excess all the time. Solitary confinement is also used for a lot of transgender people in prison as a form of oppression but can be excused as a necessary safety measure for transgender people’s own safety. I thought that it was really sad to hear about how additionally horrible a lot of transgender people’s prison experiences are. Being the only transgender person in a prison, and having to deal with harassment, sexual abuse from inmates and guards, and being placed in solitary confinement are incredibly harsh experiences that many transgender people face.

Something that the film left me wondering was what can I be doing in my life to advocate more for transgender people? I fell like the film showed a lot of points where society is flawed and oppresses transgender people, and I have been trying to think about what I can be doing to help counter this oppression. The fact that it is still hard for transgender people to get jobs because they can be discriminated against or fired has led to the criminalization of transgender people because some end up having to resort to illegal means in order to survive. After thinking about it, I feel like the biggest thing to be done would be to try to make political change ensuring non-discrimination rights for transgender people in the workplace.

~BZ

I learned many things from the film Major!—it was filled with information that I was previously unaware of. The biggest takeaway of the film for me was the information about the treatment of trans people in prison. My only previous knowledge of this topic came from Orange Is the New Black, which is obviously not an entirely accurate source or a good source. Learning about this topic was more sad than surprising. It was crazy to me that there are transgender women who have spent many months in solitary confinement when the maximum time spent there is supposed to be less than fifty days. The film left me wondering about the treatment of transgender people, mostly transgender women of color, in prison and about social action in general. There was a great point brought up by Major in which she stated that while places like San Francisco have laws to protect trans individuals, they are not always enforced.  She then said that there needed to be fines for police and other things implemented so that the laws are actually followed. This made me wonder why people always aim for laws before all else if they are not necessarily effective. Is it because they are the best way to initiate change? Or is it something else?