Stanley-Eric-Captive-Genders-Trans-Embodiment-and-Prison-Industrial-Complex

How to Make Prisons Disappearmany gays and lesbians have bought wholesale into the idea that the statecan and should affirm their identities, and they have sought to engage theprocess of normalization as much as possible. 10The dilemma now facing advocates for queer immigrants is, Howdo we make queer visible? And what does that visibility look like? Incases of appeals for asylum on the grounds for sexual orientation, for instance,lawyers are compelled to prove the sheer brutality and repressionof home cultures. This strategy comes with its costs. It is certainly truethat queer life in some countries is subject to violent repression, but theone-sided portrayal of “other” cultures as sexually repressive helps to effacethe reality of queer life in the United States, where both normativeand non-normative homosexuality are continually policed and brutalized.In addition, asylum seekers are often held up to cultural stereotypes, withasylum officers refusing admission on the grounds that applicants don’t“look” or “act” gay/lesbian enough.In this context, where queer immigrants must fit into fictional narrativesthat seek a pre-determined authenticity, family and love becomethe only modes by which queers can assert themselves as queer. They areto be either connected to families or hounded by them. In addition, thefact that immigration reform efforts are still bound by the idea of “familyreunification,” despite every indication that addressing labor issues wouldbe more worthwhile. Queer immigrants in particular are harmed by anemphasis on family reunification because their families of origin may,in many cases, prove dangerous to them; many queers, including nonimmigrants,leave their birth homes in their teens for these very reasons.Gender, Sexuality, and LaborGender and reproduction have been interlinked with labor in US immigrationlaw, which has, historically, been concerned with the literal andmetaphorical reproduction of the state. This emphasis on reproductionis linked to the principle of “family reunification,” which dictates thatimmigration law should be designed to enable families to stay together.However, this is applied only when convenient. When Mexicans and otherLatin Americans reproduce, they are accused of having “anchor babies,”a term that implies that families use their native-born children to gainpermanent residence in this country. Immigration has also been intenselyracialized and that racialization has been about surveilling and controllingthe reproduction of non-white foreigners. For instance, the 1857 Page Acteffectively banned Chinese women from immigrating, on the grounds of131